The Leadership Edge

Mother Leads Best: 50 Women Who are Changing the Way Organizations Define Leadership

2008-02-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

Mothers Lead Best: 50 Women Who are Changing the Way Organizations Define Leadership
Moe Grzelakowski
Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2005

1 “The whole concept of unconditional love transforms the underlying basis of your business relationships from emotionless transactions to respect and loyalty…love keeps your group intact and fuels the mission of the enterprise. And nothing teachers you about unconditional love, until you have kids.” Shelly Lazarus, Chairman and CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.
“If you look at the people who lead organizations, you’ll find that they share similar traits: competitiveness, toughness, ambition, and drive.”
Men are admired for this; women are not.

2 Writing on June Cleaver (Leave It To Beaver) being a CEO, “She would lack the grit to make difficult decisions and the drive to push herself and others to their performance limits.”

Leadership DNA: “energetic, intelligent, competitive, passionately driven, tough-minded risk takers… dominating, decisive, and focused.”

Women leaders, when they have children, don’t lose their leadership DNA, it goes through a transformation that is spiritual, emotional, and physical. They become warmer leaders, develop superior negotiation skills, and they don’t become so entrenched in positions. They tend to work better with men.

4-5 The different stages of motherhood has taught different lessons to a mother:
Pregnancy: Putting some else ahead of themselves.
Infancy: Patience and nurturing. Sharpening management skills and being more efficiently.
Toddlers: Crisis management, multi-tasking, spontaneity
Elementary school: Networkers and teachers; mastering the art of play, saying no
Tweens: Staying connected and tuned in; listen attentively, read between the lines, bite their tongue; remain open to ideas; picking up the signals
Teens: Receptivity, boundary-setting, open-mindedness, negotiation, influencing others

6-7 "This isn’t to say that someone who isn’t a mother (male or woman without children), can’t develop these skills. Also, some mothers don’t take the time to be a parent: they delegate, not take responsibility, etc."

She writes about how fathers don’t seem to go through the same changes that mothers do in parenting. “Studies also show that men do not help out more as women earn more... As a result, men don’t make as many changes because they aren’t forced to juggle, adapt, and carry the burden of responsibility.”

“Letting go is the fundamental basis for change.”

Dispelling the Myths of Leadership
“…women lead better than men, but both men and women prefer a man’s leadership style.” There are seven studies that show women are better managers…”

She writes about the conundrum that women face: if they are tough they are a "bitch" or "dragon woman" if they take the traditional path they are seen as too weak.

“I have never seen anyone transformed from a warrior to a wimp.”
Writing about the need for a balanced live and not being workcentric.
Letting go of perfectionism.
Letting the small stuff slide.

29 “Being perceived as being overly ambitious is the kiss of death for any executive. Because women are expected to be more nurturing and held to a higher leadership standard than men, edgy behaviors are often judged harshly.”
30 Avoiding the high horse syndrome
31 “Acting superior is indeed an act, and women are less likely to sustain this performance with nursery rhymes and baby talk running through their heads.
36 “…people who eat, sleep, and dream about work do not make the best leaders.”
37 “ The drive to do something more, the need to make a real difference, is found in even the most outwardly successful and business-focused executives.”
38 “…they (women who decide to be mothers) lead with a sense of purpose rather than just being propelled by a need to achieve.”
43 “Having a clear purpose is the type of decision that creates leadership authenticity…”

53 Chapter 4: Pregnancy
Pregnancy traits and how they relate to leadership
Accountability
Rational risk taking
Balanced perspective
Clarified values
Emerging softness

71 Chapter 5: Babies
“Both men and women are judged early in their career on how they perform in individual contributor roles. Naturally, they focus on results over relationships, on achieving goals rather than communicating with people. Everyone receives the message that they will be rewarded for achieving rather than nurturing.”

From Martin Friedman’s book, The Leadership Myth:
“You have to be big, you have to be strong…any sign of sympathy, compassion, or anything that suggest a warm, cozy feeling about other people- sensitivity, a willingness to be caught up in an emotional moment- suggests to the macho mind the existence of terrible weakness, a great fear that, perhaps, there is a side of the personality which is feminine. The big mistake here is that there qualities have nothing whatsoever to do with femininity. They have to do with humanness. An humanness in a leader is a great attribute.” pp. 61-62

74-85 One of the things that keep coming up in the book is that the people she is writing about were achievers first and then they became mothers. These are people with “leadership DNA”. She points out that one of the things that made them better as leaders is the lessons they learned as a parent of a baby. Specifically: the nurturing of another human being. She defines nurturing as:
Empathy: “Responding to feelings besides your own”

76 “Executive women without children have no sense of balance. No boundary lines.”
78 “Results are only sustainable if you care about and motivate people.”

Sensitivity: Being visually and emotionally perceptive
Caring: Demonstrating your compassion

80 “Caring can mean leveling with a subordinate about their weaknesses and insisting that they work on them. This task is painful, but if a leader really cares about another individual, she is willing to raise this difficult subject for the other person’s sake. Caring can also mean taking the time and making the effort to help others with their problems.”

Warmth: Allowing your natural friendliness and feelings to emerge

83 “… being overly cold creates dislike, while being overly warm creates a lack of respect.”
84 “If you are warm toward someone one minute and blow them off the next, you will be considered colder than if you had never acted warmly.”

Patience: Recognizing that you can’t control everything

85 “Any strong, dominant leader tends to be impatient. To a certain extent, this impatience has a positive impact, in that it compels the leader to demand excellence, to demand it all the time and with all due speed…Truly wise leaders wait just the right amount of time for events to unfold and trends to reveal themselves before taking action.”

Chapter 6: The Toddler Years (Managing Chaos)

89, “Instead of working harder, they learned to work smarter.”
Being the mother of toddlers helped them to develop the following traits:

Hyperdrive: The ability to summon a higher level of energy
Being appropriately organized

93 “In organizations, the best managers of chaos are the ones who occupy the middle ground, who know when to rely on structure and when to go with the flow.”

Clear priorities

96 “…as a mom you prioritize and reprioritize in real time based upon your goals, controlling chaos in a way that is meaningful rather than arbitrary.”

Creative problem solving

98 “Executive mothers also acquire another problem solving skill from their toddlers, one that is atypical for most leaders: They learn to ask for help.”

Adaptability
Letting go

100 “The best leaders let go of mistakes, confrontations, and other emotionally charged events that come with the territory.”

Being calm

103, “In a world where change occurs at a lightning pace, sometimes the best response to problems at work is to remain calm. This doesn’t mean refusing to make a decision or never becoming worked up. Wisdom is often gained by keeping your wits about you and observing, taking in information and ideas, and then making a decision.”

Chapter 7: (109) Elementary School: Developing and Motivating Teams

Empowering others

111 “Amal Johnson said, “True leaders are the ones who enable all sorts of people to have moments of leadership. If you give people a chance, they are capable of making decisions, if they feel enabled and it is expected of them.”

Embracing differences

113 “It’s not that leaders consciously reject differences among team members, but rather that they unconsciously favor those who have backgrounds and points of view similar to their own.”
114 “For leaders to embrace differences in people, a powerful emotional experience is usually required.”

Showing tolerance
Inspiring personal growth

120 “Sophie Vanderbroek, Xerox’s chief engineer, “ The key thing I have learned from my children was how to influence without direct control… (121) Inspiring others is all about connecting with them at a deep human level.””

Chapter 8: Tweens Listening at a Higher Level

125 “Contrary to expectations, you won’t find many CEOs or other senior executives of large companies who lack basic listening skills.”

126 As a result of working with the vulnerable tweeens, mothers become very good at the following leadership skills:

Operating at full attentiveness

128-9 “If you establish a reputation as someone in an organization who pays attention to others, people are likely to come to you first with ideas and news… my male peers and bosses were always amazed that I know about things, good and bad, before they did.”

Reading between the lines

131, “Without children to remind them to read between the lines, leaders can fall into the trap of being overly literal minded. They focus on exactly what is being said and ignore the context.

Biting your tongue

133, “Biting one’s tongue is another trait that is counterintuitive for many leaders. Executives often feel compelled to use their considerable verbal prowess to persuade.”

Matching wavelengths

135, “Unlike in the past, most leaders today are surrounded by people who come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives. Success as a leader depends upon being able to see the world through your customers’ eyes or through your coworkers’ frames of reference.”

Being open to others

138, “Not only do leaders need to be open to news and ideas, but they must also be open to criticism. For ultrahigh achievers, criticism is often the last thing they want to hear… many top organizational people develop a false sense of infallibility and, consciously or not, discourage criticism.”

Chapter 9: Teenagers Coaching with Unconditional Love

143, “No doubt, many top executives try to coach their people. Some of them, though, are coaching without the necessary training or experience; a significant percentage of executives reach top positions with limited skills sets in this increasingly important area.”
Earning Receptivity

Build trust
Cut them some slack
Respect their loyalties and their point of view
Praise their good behaviors
Show they care
Use diplomacy

Connecting on their terms

150, “To coach someone, you have to connect with them on their terms…They want analogies and anecdotes that are pertinent to their interests.”
151, “Connecting isn’t just a matter of figuring out other people’s interests and concerns but making an effort to communicate with them in language they understand.”

Establishing rules of engagement

154, “One of the most challenging tasks for leaders is setting and enforcing boundaries for subordinates. This is almost as much an art as it is a skill. You need to have a sense about when you’re being too strict and when you’re providing too much freedom.”

Becoming a positive influence

157 “If they (best leaders) want something done they are much more innovative than leaders of the past in motivating, providing resources, and establishing an environment that yields results. While many executives understand intellectually that command-and-control no longer is the best management style, they sometimes have difficulty integrating this understanding into their behaviors.”

Being indirectly effective

160, “The strongest leaders aren’t always the most aggressive or direct. They learn how to use their power selectively, and sometimes an indirect method yields better results, especially when coaching is involved.”

Chapter 10: The Character of a Leader

Selflessness
Confidence
Humility
Groundedness
Honesty

Chapter 11: Applying the Lessons of Maternal Leadership

Recognize that not all personal change is self-induced

184, “Deep change often comes from deep experiences… if you’re not a mom, watch for other, experience-based opportunities that foster meaningful change… Training and development programs have taught too many businesspeople that change is a conscious, cognitive process. Leaders need to take a cue from the mothers in this book and recognize that often, the most meaningful changes in how they think and act “just happen”.

Accept that the most powerful, leadership-changing feedback often comes from people you love rather than from people with whom you work.

185, “Corporate feedback mechanisms are often too subtle… it is too easy to rationalize the feedback you receive from colleagues or to respond defensively…This type of feedback doesn’t always penetrate the outer layer like children’s honest-to-goodness bluntness.”

Real leaders have real lives, so recognize that workaholicism detracts from rather than adds to your leadership ability.
Embrace the possibility of excelling in more than one role

Wooden on Leadership

2008-02-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Wooden on Leadership

John Wooden and Steve Jamison

McGraw Hill 2005

10 “Winning is a by-product. Focus on the product: effort.

Rules to Lead By

¶ Before you can lead others you must be able to lead yourself.

¶ Don’t hastily replace the old-fashioned with the new fangled.

¶ Learn to master the four P’s (planning, preparation, practice, and performance.)

¶ Write down the tasks, initiatives and actions that each member of your team needs to do to perform at his or her peak level.

¶ Leadership success begins with a solid foundation

¶ There is no substitute for enthusiasm

¶ Friendship, loyalty and cooperation complete the foundation for leadership.

¶ Leadership starts with self-control

¶ Be a heads-up leader

¶ Do not fear failure or punish initiative

¶ Make sure your team does not come up short in the long run- intentness

¶ Condition your team to love the struggle

¶ Remember that success can take months- or years- to achieve and be undone in minutes.

¶ Never let anyone else define your success

¶ Organizations succeed when they become more than the sum of their players.

¶ Its tough to coach character

¶ Character starts with little things

¶ Character is more than honesty

¶ Beware those who will do anything to win

¶ Lead with love

¶ You don’t have to treat everyone alike or like everyone the same

¶ Seek out opportunities to show you care

¶ Know what time it is

¶ Do not equate professional expertise with your ability to teach it

¶ When you have all the right answers, you will stop asking all the right questions

¶ Remember a good demonstration tops a good description

¶ Control emotion or emotion will control you

¶ Avoid excess. Shoot for moderation.

¶ Instill emotional discipline.

¶ The star of the team is the team.

¶ Insist that members of your team share the “ball”- information, ideas, and more

¶ Go out of your way to praise those “quiet” performers who make things happen.

¶ Seek players who will make the best team rather than the best players

¶ It all starts with the socks

¶ The right rivets are essential

¶ Nourish talent in an environment of perfected details

¶ Sloppiness breeds sloppiness

¶ Remember that a great quarter in basketball or business starts with a great minute

¶ Set the proper tone with meticulous time management technique

¶ Document minutes, days, weeks, months, and so on

¶ Pride is easier to instill with the carrot

¶ Make sure all praise is genuine and appropriate

¶ Do not tolerate internal carping and criticism

¶ Don’t lock yourself into rigid penalties

¶ Each job counts

¶ Encourage, but manage, ambition

¶ Teach your players to expect unexpected opportunity.

¶ Believe in the hidden potential of all.

¶ Success breeds satisfaction, satisfaction breeds failure.

¶ Identify and remove excuses for not getting to the next level.

¶ Stop saying “No” and start saying “How”.

¶ Welcome contrary ideas, but not contrarians.

¶ Identify team goals, then file them away.

¶ Give full respect to each competitor.

¶ Long-term success requires short-term focus.

¶ Always assume adversity

¶ Don’t make “Woe is Me” your fight song

¶ Don’t blame failure on fate

Bo's Lasting Lessons

2008-02-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

¶ Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership,

¶ Bo Schembechler and John Bacon, Business Plus, 2007

¶ Prepare to Lead

o You Better Start with Your Heart

o Seek Mentors, Not Money

o Wait for the Right Opportunity

§ P. 20 In his interview with Wisconsin and his subsequent interview at Michigan (p. 22) it is evident that interview committees aren’t his view of how things should be done. His comments about including a student on the committee at Wisc- well his disdain came through.

¶ Take Charge

o Throw a Bucket of Cold Water

§ P. 27 “…whatever your philosophy, whatever your standards, whatever your expectations, you establish those on Day One. Don’t waste a second. You can always soften up if you need to, but you can’t get tougher later on. It’s a lot better to throw a bucket of cold water on them on your first day, than it is to try to coax them into the cold water, toe by toe.”

o Respect Your History

§ P. 50 “The history of your organization is one of your greatest strengths, and if you’re new to the organization, it’s your job to learn it, to respect it, and to teach it to the people coming up in your company.”

§ P. 54m “When you are the leader, you are the organization.”

o Do the Right Thing, Always

o Lay Down Your Laws

§ p.65 “First, if you don’t have anything important to say, don’t schedule a meeting for the heck of it… The person who knows how to run a meeting will get twice as much out of his people, because when the meeting’s over, they’ll be ready to act on the message. The most important meeting you will ever have with your people is your first one- because it is vital that everyone knows exactly what your values are, from Day One. In this first meeting you need to establish who you are, what you’re going to do, and how you plan on doing it.”

· He says that people can’t ever say they weren’t told, even if it was in a two hour meeting. This is bogus because he is not paying attention to what we know about most modern adults that their memories aren’t trained to remember everything said in a two-hour meeting.

o Set Goals That Get Results

§ P. 80 “ The seniors set the goals for the team- because it is their team.”

§ P.85 “If you’re going to lead, you need to make goals. And those goals can’t come from the top down, they’ve got to come from the people who are responsible for achieving them. Your job is to help them get there, and remind them every day what their goals are, and what they have to do to make their dreams come true.”

¶ Build Your Team

o Hire People Who Want to Work for You

o Get the Most Out of Your Staff

§ P.98 “…after you hear what they have to say, you’ve got to make the final call.”

§ P.100 “If you didn’t want their opinions, you shouldn’t have hired them. And if all their opinions are the same as yours, you don’t need them.”

§ P. 104, “ If you’re the top guy, and you want to be loved every minute of every day, get a dog.” Truman

§ P.106 “In the long run, you cannot win consistently in any field if you let someone else make the important decisions for you. You cannot delegate important decisions… that’s the price of leadership.”

o Develop Leaders Underneath You

§ P. 121 “Only a weak leader is threatened by strong leaders underneath him.”

o Scuttle the Star System

§ P.122 “ You’ve got to keep your stars in line, the guys in the middle motivated, and the people at the bottom contributing to the success of the team.”

§ 123, “If it’s not equal, it’s not fair, and everyone on your team already knows it.”

o Motivate the Middle Man

§ 128, “I think letting people go is usually a bad idea. It eats up too much time, energy and morale. That’s why I’d much rather teach than fire them…It’s you job, as a leader, to make those people who do more than they thought they could- maybe more than you thought they could- and put them in the best possible position to help the team.”

§ 131, “You’re not going to yell your way to the top of your profession. If your people are going to perform their absolute best, you need to give them the tools to do so.”

o Give ‘Em a Chance

§ 138 “… if you have more than two people in your organization, you’re going to have an upper, middle, and lower level of talent.”

§ 141, “If you don’t tell them why, they’ll feel abandoned, and start coming up with all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories.”

o Give Everyone a Role, and Make It Important

o If You Must Fire, Fire Fast

§ 161, “Only a tyrant likes to fire people.”

o Promote the Will to Prepare

§ 169 “If you’re a leader, your ultimate responsibility is the training of your people, because every job requires training. If you can think of one that doesn’t- well, jeez Louise, then why should you hire someone to do it? It it’s a job worth paying someone, it’s a job worth training… You need to plan your training with the end product in mind.”

§ 170 “Next, you need to design your training as close to the real thing as possible… Why should I, your customer, be responsible for training your employee, and suffer through all their mistakes?”

o Listen Before You Lead

§ 179, “You can NOT be a leader unless you like people! You’ve got to spend time with them, so you know them. You’ve got to be interested in who they are, what they do away from the job, and how they think.”

§ 181, “… if one of your people comes to you with a good idea- or a personal problem- and it just goes in one ear and out the other, YOU WILL FAIL.”

o Don’t Sleep on It, and Don’t Hold Grudges

¶ Meet the Moment of Truth

o Break ‘Em Down and Build ‘Em Up

o Emphasize Execution, Not Innovation

o Scrap Your Script

o Make Adjustments on Facts, Not Pride

o Turn Mistakes into Momentum

o Stay Focused Under Fire

¶ Face the Facts and Ignore the Rest

o Rebuild with Basics

o Ignore Your Critics

o Loyalty Counts

o Know When to Leave, and How

o If I Could Have One More Week

Leadership and Self-Deception: Joseph's notes

2008-01-11T13:15:00.001-08:00

Here are notes from my reading of Leadership and Self-Deception. The executive reading version- rather than Cliff Notes, it is Joe's Notes. These extracts really don't do justice to this book. Please read it.

Leadership and Self-Deception

The Arbinger Institute

Barrett-Kohler. 2002

16 “That’s self-deception… the inability to see that one has a problem.”

24 “…we can tell how people feel about us, and it’s to that we respond.”

25 Are you really interested in the other person or are you interested in what they think about you? Are you interested in what they can DO for you?

31 “…no matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside.”

34 “I see others as somehow less than they were- as objects with needs and desires somehow secondary and less legitimate than mine.”

43 “…people respond not primarily to what you do but to how you’re being.”

59 “The point of this isn’t perfection…It’s simply that we get better- better in systematic and concrete ways that improve the company’s bottom line.

65 & 71, 75-103 “Self betrayal:

1. An act contrary to what I feel I should do for another is called an act of self-betrayal.

2. When I betray myself, I begin to see the world in a way that justifies my self-betrayal.

3. When I see a self-justifying world, my view of reality becomes distorted.

4. When I betray myself I enter the box. (The box is where I objectify other people.)

5. Over time, certain boxes become characteristic of me, and I carry them with me.

6. Being in the box I provoke others to be in the box.

7. In the box, we provoke mutual mistreatment and obtain justification.We collude in giving each other reason to stay in the box.

74 “I focused on and inflated her faults when I needed to feel justified for mine.”

99 “Being in the box, I need problems.”

105 In the box you can’t focus on results because you are focused on yourself.

130- What doesn’t work in the box: (Being in the box is blaming others)

1. Trying to change others

2. Trying my best to “cope” with others

3. Leaving

4. Communicating about my box

5. Implementing new skills or techniques

6. Changing my behavior

133. “…skill training in nontechnical areas often has so little lasting impact.” Because people are in the box when they apply them. “…people problems that most people try to correct with skills aren’t due to a lack of skill at all. They’re due to self-betrayal.”

141. “…we change the in the moment we cease to resist what is outside our box- others.”

148 “…when we’re feeling overwhelmed, it generally isn’t our obligation to others but our in-the-box desperation to prove something about ourselves that we find overwhelming.”

165-66

Knowing the material

¶ Self-betrayal leads to self-deception and “the box”

¶ When you’re in the box, you can’t focus on results.

¶ Your influence and success will depend on being out of the box.

¶ You get out of the box as you cease resisting people.

Living the Material

¶ Don’t try to be perfect. Do try to be better.

¶ Don’t use the vocabulary- “the box” and so on- with people who don’t already know it. Do use the principles in your own life.

¶ Don’t look for others’ boxes. Do look for your own.

¶ Don’t accuse others of being in the box. Do try to stay out of the box yourself.

¶ Don’t give up on yourself when you discover you’ve been in the box. Do keep trying.

¶ Don’t deny you’ve been in the box when you have been. Do apologize, and then keep marching forward, trying to be more helpful to others in the future.

¶ Don’t focus on what people others are doing wrong. Do focus on what you can do right to help.

¶ Don’t worry whether others are helping you. Do worry whether you are helping others.

Leadership and Self-Deception: Jospeh's notes

2008-01-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

Leadership and Self-Deception

The Arbinger Institute

Barrett-Kohler. 2002

16 “That’s self-deception… the inability to see that one has a problem.”

24 “…we can tell how people feel about us, and it’s to that we respond.”

25 Are you really interested in the other person or are you interested in what they think about you? Are you interested in what they can DO for you?

31 “…no matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside.”

34 “I see others as somehow less than they were- as objects with needs and desires somehow secondary and less legitimate than mine.”

43 “…people respond not primarily to what you do but to how you’re being.”

59 “The point of this isn’t perfection…It’s simply that we get better- better in systematic and concrete ways that improve the company’s bottom line.

65 & 71, 75-103 “Self betrayal:

1. An act contrary to what I feel I should do for another is called an act of self-betrayal.

2. When I betray myself, I begin to see the world in a way that justifies my self-betrayal.

3. When I see a self-justifying world, my view of reality becomes distorted.

4. When I betray myself I enter the box. (The box is where I objectify other people.)

5. Over time, certain boxes become characteristic of me, and I carry them with me.

6. Being in the box I provoke others to be in the box.

7. In the box, we provoke mutual mistreatment and obtain justification.We collude in giving each other reason to stay in the box.

74 “I focused on and inflated her faults when I needed to feel justified for mine.”

99 “Being in the box, I need problems.”

105 In the box you can’t focus on results because you are focused on yourself.

130- What doesn’t work in the box: (Being in the box is blaming others)

1. Trying to change others

2. Trying my best to “cope” with others

3. Leaving

4. Communicating about my box

5. Implementing new skills or techniques

6. Changing my behavior

141. “…we change the in the moment we cease to resist what is outside our box- others.”

148 “…when we’re feeling overwhelmed, it generally isn’t our obligation to others but our in-the-box desperation to prove something about ourselves that we find overwhelming.”

165-66

Knowing the material

¶ Self-betrayal leads to self-deception and “the box”

¶ When you’re in the box, you can’t focus on results.

¶ Your influence and success will depend on being out of the box.

¶ You get out of the box as you cease resisting people.

Living the Material

¶ Don’t try to be perfect. Do try to be better.

¶ Don’t use the vocabulary- “the box” and so on- with people who don’t already know it. Do use the principles in your own life.

¶ Don’t look for others’ boxes. Do look for your own.

¶ Don’t accuse others of being in the box. Do try to stay out of the box yourself.

¶ Don’t give up on yourself when you discover you’ve been in the box. Do keep trying.

¶ Don’t deny you’ve been in the box when you have been. Do apologize, and then keep marching forward, trying to be more helpful to others in the future.

¶ Don’t focus on what people others are doing wrong. Do focus on what you can do right to help.

¶ Don’t worry whether others are helping you. Do worry whether you are helping others.

Summary of Principle Centered Leadership

2008-01-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

The Leadership Edge

November 20^th, 2007

Summary of Discussion on:

Principle Centered Leadership by Stephen Covey

Facilitated by Joseph Bailey, LBCC

Present: Joseph Bailey, Cathy Baker, Lynette Barnes, Nancy Bell, Mitch Benedict, Debbie Brooks, Darlene Cobb-Peterson, Tim Fitzpatrick, Jared Garlick, Tammy Huaracha, Steve Hutchinson, Lori McGhee, Mike McInally, Wendy Roe, Brad Schaffner, Joanne Secrest, Janet Steele

Principles:

Fairness, Equity, Justice, Integrity, Honesty, Trust

Characteristics of Principled Centered Leadership:

Continually learning, service oriented, radiate positive energy, believe in other people, lead balanced lives, see life as an adventure, synergistic, exercise for self-renewal

Collected Discoveries:

Effective communication requires skill and practice. Sadly, beginner stigmas lead to pretending.

People want safety first

The measure of your relationships are evidenced by the quality of your last 5 conversations

How much do you talk? How much do you listen?

Synergy starts with the desire to be part of something bigger/greater than yourself.

How we present creates the feeling – passion.

Walk the talk. Operate with integrity.

You can not and should not adapt to everybody – that is impossible.

You can not motivate but you can create an environment that they want to succeed in.

A good leader is a listener, self confident, comfortable in their own skin, secure.

Humility in leadership – to lead you need to learn, in order to understand those whom you lead.

Make it fun.

Everyone counts.

Build trust – nothing follow without it.

Recognize different people have different starting points; how do we get them to the level the company needs? Build relationships and gain trust.

Resources: Books, Articles, Websites, Movies

2007-11-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

What are YOUR suggestions about what we might read?

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
The Essential Leader by John Wooden
Failing Forward by John Maxwell

The Leadership Challenge: Thoughts and Comments

2007-10-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Leadership Edge

October 16^th, 2007

Summary of Discussion on:

The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner

Facilitated by Joseph Bailey, LBCC

Present: Joseph Bailey, Debbie Brooks, Tim Fitzpatrick, Dave Harke, Doris Johnston, Michael McInally, Bill O’Bryan, Ginger Rummell, Vicki Smith, Janet Steele, Carie Tribble, Kathy Turgeon, Martha Wells, Paul Workinger

Question: What is it going to take for me to commit to this leadership challenge?

My company’s commitment.

Reading material that helps build a leader from scratch.

A good read.

A diverse group with responses (wish more had read the book…but).

Interesting reading plus robust discussion.

Getting to learn others style to help me grow/improve as a leader.

A wonderful book to read.

The knowledge that I will better myself and my leadership skills.

People that will open up and share experiences and solutions.

Highlights:

This was inspiring because everyone participated.

Some talked about their shortcomings, what they were going to do about it.

Small groups were very effective.

Personal stories are always grand.

Lots of passion here today.

Met new people with perspectives on leadership I can use.

It was a great opportunity to hear from other leaders – their issues, challenges and successes.

Having other leaders, who I respect, talking about how they have struggled at times with leadership issues. In particular, hearing from one participant how he came to the realization that his skill sets that brought him to his position were not enough to take him and his organization to the next level.

Real people (not co-workers) looking at a common topic in different ways, revealing.

Conversation that there are lots of styles and resources available.

Exchanging viewpoints and insights to leadership. Your leadership skills always need to expand.

Insights into how others would “lead” in your shoes based on their past experience and wisdom.

Sell yourself then people will follow.

Collected Discoveries:

Walk around: get to know others and build relationships, sell the passion, open communication

Model the way: showcase the right way, walk the talk

How do you engage those that have been there with new people joining in? so many levels of commitment and knowledge. How do you create passion and buy-in?

How can you carry over leadership skills to your home life; spouses, children, pets! Laying the ground work of core beliefs, and then allowing your children to grow under that.

People are different (think differently), trust they will do the job. It’s all about outcomes, not necessarily how it got done. There are different routes to the same goal.

Expect a good job and reward exceptional jobs.

What will the company (job) be like when you leave? Succession planning, empower others.

Small victories are still wins.

Leaders have passion, communicate passion.

Recognize that at different times you need different skill sets. Recognize change is needed.

Find your voice to take the next step.

Let people know they are important, internal and external to the business. Know the right kind of recognition, stuff and words.

Empathy.

Our perceptions vs. others.

Leadership basics are universal.

Set expectations and the goals, not how.

Allow people to make mistakes.

Communicate.

One unhappy person tells 10 people, one happy tells 3.

Accept change.

There is value in encouraging others, don’t hold anything back.

Create a shared vision.

Leaders and followers. “Wagons ho” Is there a wagon behind you?

Different individuals taking about the same thing provides different insights, perspectives are different.

Don’t forget the power of Thank You.

Welcome to the Leadership Edge

2007-10-31T11:36:00.000-07:00

The Greater Albany Chamber of Commerce in Albany, Oregon has created a monthly meeting for people to get together and discuss the issues around leadership. Each month there is a book that is read and then we discuss the book and related topics around the issues of leadership. Our purpose is to continue to learn and grow in our roles as organizational and community leaders. The success of this program will be the quality of participation by those who engage in this conversation. We live at a time when quality leadership is needed now more than ever, please join us.

I have agreed to facilitate most of the discussions and be the convener of the sessions. My name is Joseph Bailey and I am on the faculty at Linn-Benton Community College. LBCC provides a variety of services to the business and organizational community and some of the roles that I fill are:
- Performance Coach (for individuals and small teams)
- Facilitator (organizational planning, meetings)
- Consultant (working with organizational systems and processes)
- Trainer (skills development primarily in the areas of Change, Leadership, Supervision, Communications)

Each month I will post notes from the meeting, as well as my personal summary of any reading that we do. If there are things you which to include in this, please contact me by posting responses to this blog or at joseph.bailey@linnbenton.edu