LeadershipNow 140: December 2013 Compilation

Here are a selection of tweets from December 2013 that you might have missed:

• Top Themes to Pull Forward from 2013 by Jon Mertz @ThinDifference
• 10 Reasons why Managers are Clueless about Leadership by @greatleadership
• Leading, When You Are Not The Leader by @toddbnielsen
• 7 Characteristics of a Good Leader by @RobertCordray
• Mike Henry Sr: Humility: The 5th Sense of Character-based Leadership
• @NYTimes: Underdog Against Amazon, Best Buy Charges Ahead
• From @TalentCulture : Becoming A Leader Others Want To Follow
• Be aware in 2014 by @TomAsacker
• The One Leadership Responsibility You Must Accept by @Starbucker
• Leading in the 21st century: An interview with Ford’s Alan Mulally | McKinsey & Company
• Noonan: The Most Memorable Words of 2013
• Four Senses of Character-Based Leadership by Mike Henry Sr
• How leaders seek the best in others? http://bit.ly/JAWlV2 by @tshnall
• Two Things All Good Leaders Do by @RonEdmondson
• 10 New Year’s Resolutions for the Servant Leader by Mark Miller
• 5 Topics Your Board Should Discuss
• Busy vs. Productive: 5 Ways to Focus on the Right Things via @katytynan
• 5 Things Successful People Do Before 8 AM by Lifehacker
• Words Can Change Your Brain on @psychcentral
• Great Clip from @scottmckain: "Taxi Terry"
• Maturing as a leader includes shedding your mask of certainty by @recoveringleadr
• The 5×5 Trick To Make Life Better by @jaltucher
• Are You Listening Like a Leader? by @DougConant
• Win When You Lose: A Lesson From Joe Torre : Leaders who know how to lose…as well as win…are worth following by John Baldoni
• Mike Henry Sr: Inclusion: Boldly Go into the Discomfort Zone by Jane Purdue @thehrgoddess
• FT: Five Twitter bio clichés to avoid by @lucykellaway
• Leon Festinger, the social psychologist that coined the term “cognitive dissonance” in 1957, makes this observation.
• To Lead Boldly Embrace Your Inner Loser by @hennainam
• How Leaders Can Ride the Storm by @LaRaeQuy
• Wisdom For Your Future Self by Karin Hurt
• If Risk Knocks At The Door. Will You Answer It? by @LollyDaskal
• Smoothing the Creases: 5 Ways to Manage Conflict in the Workplace by Eunisse De Leon
• Bosses: People work is the real work by @wallybock
• Leaders Build Leaders by @LesHayman
• 4 Reasons Why Questions are a Leader's Best Friend by @ArtPetty
• Lacking inspiration? Exercise found to boost creativity - Telegraph
• FT: The need to rein in perfectionism
• It wouldn’t be so bad if the pace of change was accelerating along some completely predictable path. The Dark Side of Technology by John Hagel
• FT: Marriages can survive start-up pressures
• From @Forbes > Why Leaders Should Still Pay Attention To Charles Handy's Quiet Wisdom
• Mike Henry Sr: How Do You Hone Your Leadership Craft?
• Lesson from FDR: Character Is Revealed by @JohnBaldoni
• @AMAnet: Quiz: What Type of Thinker Are You?
• FT: Advice for stalled graduate recruits

See more on Twitter.

* * *
Like us on Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

Posted by Michael McKinney at 04:42 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | LeadershipNow 140

Best Leadership Books of 2013

LEADERSHIP IS is an inside job. All of these titles help us to look at ourselves more deeply by asking the right questions. Sustainable leadership is a direct result of leaders that encourage feedback, listen and act positively on the information they receive to take their leadership effectiveness to the next level.

Leadership is about relationships. Building your leadership legacy is about building others. You will be remembered through the growth of the people you leveraged your leadership power for. Are the people around you flourishing?

The list below represents my picks for the best leadership books of 2013.

* * *
Leadership and the Art of Struggle: How Great Leaders Grow Through Challenge and Adversity
by Steven Snyder
Struggles are an inevitable part of the leadership journey. With every episode of struggle, there is a learning opportunity. Steven Snyder offers insights as how we should accept and reconcile the struggles we experience. (Blog Post)

The Business of Belief: How the World's Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe
by Tom Asacker
In The Business of Belief, Tom Asacker describes the job of leadership from the perspective of beliefs—yours and theirs. Understanding people’s beliefs is the first step in leading them. It's a critical message that every leader should read. (Blog Post)

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty
Phil Jackson offers 11 insights that transform ordinary leadership into great leadership. His 11 Principle's of Mindful Leadership are about leading with outgoing concern for others and good character. These principles should be a part of your personal leadership development plan. (Blog Post)

Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day
by Todd Henry
Todd Henry asks, “Are we willing to spend ourselves on behalf of something we care about?” Be purposeful about how you spend your time. As many people become more and more successful, comfort becomes their objective. We cannot pursue comfort as an objective. That’s the path to mediocrity. You cannot pursue comfort and great works simultaneously. Your work should represent what you care about. Will you die full of unexecuted ideas or will you die empty? (Blog Post)

The Good Struggle: Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World
by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.
Underlying your leadership are certain values and assumptions. Leading responsibly and successfully is a struggle. Badaracco poses five questions leaders need to answer. The answers will guide and ground your choices in a world of widely divergent forces.
(Blog Post)

Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly
by Mike Myatt
We all have gaps in our leadership. Hacking Leadership is for leaders who feel that their performance falls short of their potential and who want to know why. Myatt addresses 11 gaps from hacking perfection to hacking the future. He asks, “Do you want to be a leader who simply does what’s expected, or do you want to be a leader who makes what if a reality?” As a leader, you need to be focused on stretching yourself—hacking your leadership gaps.

The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas
by David Burkus
Creativity is not as divinely-inspired, unpredictable and random a gift as we tend to think it is. These persistent myths hinder our creativity and limit our ability to produce real creative thinking. Burkus debunks ten of these myths like the Eureka Myth, the Lone Creator Myth, and the Brainstorming Myth, to help us understand how to ignite what is already inside of us.

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them, many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls “antifragile” is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish. Overly protective leadership can lead to more fragile followers. Very practical insights here. (Blog Post)

Icons and Idiots: Straight Talk on Leadership
by Bob Lutz
Bob Lutz offer practical insights into leaders and leadership. Great leaders do not possess all of the ingredients we might think they must. It’s always a blend of good and bad. But, in Lutz’s words, the value they bring to the table consistently and heavily outweighs the negative baggage. Very encouraging for us mere mortals.

Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success
by Adam M. Grant
Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make: do we try to claim as much value as we can, or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return? In the workplace, says Adam Grant, givers are a relatively rare breed. Are You a Giver or a Taker? (Blog Post)

Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO's Quest for Meaning and Authenticity
by August Turak
Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks is about service and selflessness—two foundational ideas of good leadership. A reflective reading of this book will cause you to look more deeply into your own motivations and behaviors, live authentically and lead from who you are. Service and selflessness have the moral force to transcend market forces.

Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights
by Gary Klein
Gary Klein says that organizations stifle insights because we value predictability and crave perfection more than we value the disruption they bring. A better understanding of the nature of insights will help us to welcome them and make better use of them rather than suppressing them before they see the light of day. (Blog Post)



Biographies:

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Goodwin explores in detail the communication styles of William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Taft’s failure as a public leader underscores the pivotal importance of the bully pulpit—that “wonderful platform” from which the presidency shapes public sentiment and mobilize action —in presidential leadership. It’s an engaging story of the relationship between Roosevelt, Taft and the muckraking press.

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
by Brad Stone
The Everything Store is an interesting account of the rise of Amazon and one of the world's leading entrepreneurs, Jeff Bezos. We learn about Bezos’ values and vision as well as his blind spots. There are lessons to be learned in all of it.

I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford
by Richard Snow
This is a well told story of Henry Ford’s rise from farm boy to one of America’s greatest industrialists. Snow portrays Ford with all of his strengths and weaknesses and the consequences of each. A study of Ford’s life provides insights into the world we live in today.

Related Interest:
Best Leadership Books of 2012
Best Leadership Books of 2011
Best Leadership Books of 2010

Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:38 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Books

2 Ways Organizations Obstruct Insights

WE all want insights—the new thinking that “shift us to a new story, a new set of beliefs that are more accurate, more comprehensive, and more useful.” But we often don’t want the disruption they bring because insights have the power to change how we act, think and feel.

In Seeing What Others Don’t, author Gary Klein says that organizations stifle insights because we value predictability and crave perfection.

We fall into the predictability trap because we are “so captured by the lure of predictability” that we make it too high a priority. In short, we like the status quo. Managing people is easier when we know what we are doing and we are doing it in a certain way. Insights can change how we relate to each other and that creates the unexpected. “Insight is the opposite of predictable.”

Organizations don’t like errors and try to eradicate them. Mistake-free performance helps keep things on track and running smoothly. “It’s much easier and less frustrating to manage by reducing errors than to try to boost insights. You know how to spot errors. You don’t know how to encourage insights other than hanging inspirational posters on the walls.” Even though insights can improve on perfection, perfection gets the job done. Why rock the boat?

"In well-ordered situations, with clear goals and standards and stable conditions, the pursuit of perfection makes sense. But not when we face complex and chaotic conditions, with standards that keep evolving.”

“The actions we take to reduce errors and uncertainty can get in the way of insights. Therefore, organizations are faced with a balancing act. Too often they become imbalanced and overemphasize … reducing errors and uncertainty.” To increase certainty and reduce errors we tend to:

• Impose higher standards
• Increase controls
• Document all sources
• Identify assumptions
• Increase the number of reviews
• Justify conclusions with greater rigor
• Rely on checklists and procedures
• Increase the precision of schedules

All of these have benefits to organizations and individuals, but the problem arises when they are pursued with so much zeal that they interfere with insights. They can squelch thinking and reflection and lead to robotic behavior.

Insights are dis-organizing, but we need them to stay relevant and grow.

* * *
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 03:43 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Change , Thinking

Are You a Thought Leader?

WHAT IS a thought leader, and what does thought leadership mean in today’s business world? As much as some people wish it wasn’t so, a thought leader is not someone who simply restates someone else’s views and positions. Furthermore, beyond uniqueness of thought, a true thought leader’s positions also challenge established norms and conventions. Moreover, the true litmus test for a thought leader is when their unique ideas are implemented in the marketplace, they tend to create disruptive innovation, and often change the way we view the world.

It is certainly much easier to look back in time at world leaders, Nobel laureates, religious scholars, philosophers, and captains of industry to identify historical thought leaders than it is to identify today’s visionaries. This is due to the fact that thought leadership was once a term reserved for a limited few. Regrettably, the label of thought leader has evolved to become a self-bestowed title for anyone who has something to say or promote, often without regard for qualitative issues. Some would say that the term thought leader, once synonymous with futurist and innovator, is more closely aligned with snake-oil salesman today. Don’t get me wrong, true thought leaders still exist; they are just much harder to spot these days.

Let me begin by stating that authentic thought leaders, the real deals, are not created via great marketing and PR alone. While they are oft published, quite outspoken, and many times represented by marvelous publicists, they are not merely contrived, self-promoted legends in their own minds. Rather true thought leaders are born out of real-world successes, achievements, and contributions that have been recognized by their peers and competitors alike. Their work is widely regarded as being innovative, disruptive, and market altering. They are not the posers, but the players. They are not spin masters trying to make it, but are the undisputed market leaders that have already arrived.

It is also important to draw a distinction between personal or corporate branding and thought leadership. While thought leaders often become well-recognized brands, there are many well-crafted brands that have messaged thought leadership where none exists. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the spin and hype associated with great marketers who will gladly accept compensation, but will leave you woefully disappointed when it comes to living up to their billing. Look for real results based upon market leadership, and not just brand leadership alone.

I have nothing against the term thought leader, however, it is my opinion the label should be reserved as an honor to bestow upon a select few, and not a title to be adopted by the masses. Dilution has the opposite effect of scarcity in that it diminishes value. Bottom line…judge people on their actions and results, not their rhetoric or their title. Don’t accept conventional wisdom as gospel unless you can validate proof of concept, and then only accept it if you can innovate with it, or around it. Challenge everything in business by looking to improve upon the status quo and differentiate yourself from your competition. I don’t advise my clients to adopt the practices of their peers, but rather to be disruptive with their innovation such that they create or widen market gaps between themselves and their peers. Lastly, when you run across a real thought leader, you’ll clearly recognize them as such for there is something truly unique in both their words and deeds.

* * *
Mike Myatt is America’s Top CEO Coach, recognized by Thinkers50 as a global authority on the topic of leadership, a Forbes leadership columnist, author of Leadership Matters, CEO at N2growth, and is a Senior Fellow at the Gordian Institute. His is the author of Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly.

* * *
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:22 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Leading Forum

Could the Leadership Contract Help You Be a Better Leader?

IT IS no longer surprising to hear of another leader letting us down. They’re disconnected, they behave badly (if not disgracefully), and they are entrenched in wrong thinking. And we have begun to expect not much else. It numbs us generally, but it also lowers the expectations we have of ourselves. We become bystanders.

In The Leadership Contract, author Vince Molinaro thinks that this is due to four primary reasons. First, we have relied on the heroic model of leadership—the idea that the leader at the top of the organization has all the answers and can single-handedly lead the way. “It is risky to put your faith in just one individual. And when you focus on only one leader at the top, you actually take your attention away from other leaders in an organization.”

Second, we have glorified charismatic leaders. We turn them into celebrities. They become the face of the organization. We give them too much money and power. Charisma isn’t bad. “All leaders need a certain amount of it, but charisma can have a bad side too.” When leaders think that they can act any way they want without any accountability, we glorify jerks.

Third, we have promoted technical superstars into leadership roles. “The thinking was that if you were strong technically, you would obviously be strong in a management or leadership role.” The problem is that they are entirely different activities and expectations began to move you further away from what made you a strong performer. “To cope, you then relegated the people issues to second place and focused on the more stimulating technical parts of your job. Then you became a leader in title but not in action.”

Finally, Molinaro says that we have a quick-fix view to developing leaders. “We have been too simplistic about what it really takes to develop leaders.” Leadership is hard work. “We need to come to terms with the real, hard work required to be consistently great at the practice of leadership and to drive the sustainable performance of our organizations.”

Molinaro believes the way out is the leadership contract and its four terms:

1. Leadership is a Decision—Make It
Leadership begins with a decision to “consciously commit to being the best leader you can be.” Otherwise, you are just going through the motions. Your organization needs you to be at your best. This means of course, that you have to have the humility to accept the fact that you could get better.

2. Leadership is an Obligation—Step Up
Your decision to lead places new demands on you. “If you try to be a leader without considering your obligations to the people around you, you won’t be focused on your organization’s larger goals. You will be thinking about how to advance your own career instead of how to build long-term success. You will make it about you rather than the obligations you have to others.”

3. Leadership is Hard Work—Get Tough
You can’t be a bystander. You have to set the pace. “If you try to be a leader without digging into the hard work, you won’t be prepared for crises. You will be drowning in day-to-day deadlines instead of focusing on where your organization needs to go next. You will find yourself floundering when issues come up on your team because you haven’t taken the time to build a collaborative culture. You will leave serious gaps in your team’s capabilities because you haven’t bothered to tackle the tough issues.”

4. Leadership is Community—Connect
You can’t be disconnected as a leader. You must build strong relationships and commit to building a community of leaders and it all begins with a commitment to connect. “If you try to lead without connecting with other leaders, you will isolate yourself. You will be focusing on your own narrow little world instead of collaborating with peers from across your organization and your community. You will find yourself blindsided by problems you didn’t expect because you didn’t connect with anyone who could have helped you prepare. You will end up overstressed and overwhelmed because you didn’t have anyone supporting you.”

Is it time for you to sign the leadership contract?

* * *
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:20 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Leadership Development

The 12 Rules of Respect

Paul Meshanko has highlighted the importance of demonstrating respect in all of our interactions in The Respect Effect. The desired result is that those we interact with will feel valued in some way. He offers 12 Ways of thinking and behaving around others:

1. Be Aware of Your Nonverbal and Extra-verbal Cues.
What we say is important but how we say it can make or break the communication. “Extra-verbal cues include the speed with which we speak, our volume relative to background noise, our inflection, and our willingness to pause to make space for others to speak.”

2. Develop Curiosity About the Perspectives of Others.
“Empathy is demonstrated when it becomes evident to others around us that we are interested in what they think, why they think it, and how they feel about it. When this happens, it becomes easier to communicate respect to others, even if we disagree with them.”

3. Assume that Everyone is Smart About Something.
“Because I like to think I’m smart, it is reasonable to assume that other people like to think they are also smart. The only difference is that we are all smart through different histories and life experiences.”

4. Become a Better Listener by Shaking Your “But.” The word “but” can be used in a way that hinders our ability to show respect. The word “but” negates what came before it. Replacing it with “and” and other words that validate and convey consideration, the entire tone is changed.

5. Look for Opportunities to Connect with and Support Others.
“Even in the heat of conflict, there are ways to connect with people if we want to. When we demonstrate a willingness to move away from our immediate agenda and search for positions of agreement first, it makes working through the actual differences a bit easier.”

6. When You Disagree, Explain Why.
“It is disrespectful when we fail to share our observations and opinions in order to avoid conflict. We have an obligation to others to be truthful with our perspectives and points of view. When done with civility, tact, and room for counterarguments, sharing our perspectives leads to the best decisions and optimal results. It also prevents the accumulation of ‘baggage’ that builds up when we keep things bottled up.” And remember, it works both ways.

7. Look for Opportunities to Grow, Stretch, and Change.
“As we develop the desire and the willingness to hold ourselves up to the proverbial ‘bright light’ for an occasional reality check, two things happen. First, we become infinitely easier to be around because we are less critical of others. Second, we grow in wisdom and perspective. That’s because we start considering that, in situations where we might initially view others critically, the problems may be ours to deal with and not theirs.

8. Learn to Be Wrong on Occasion.
“From a neurological perspective, there is absolutely no correlation between our degree of certainty about a subject and the likelihood that we are actually correct in our beliefs. This means that our feeling of certainty about something is nothing more than a strong emotion. The stronger the emotion, the more likely we are to develop blind spots around it.” An open mind is a demonstration of respect.

9. Never Hesitate to Say You Are Sorry.
“Unfortunately, it is often when we’re at our worst that our actions are most memorable to others. While we don’t expect everybody to be perfect, “we do expect people to make it right when their words, actions, or decisions cause damage.”

10. Intentionally Engage Others in Ways that Build Their Self-Esteem.
“Building esteem in people we work with or for requires a shift in agendas. It takes a shift in focus away from what we need to what others need.” Meshanko colleague Teresa Welborne said, “If you are in a leadership position and you are not a people person, you become a liability to your organization. And if you’re not willing to make the effort to become a people person, you should not be in a position of leadership.”

11. Be Respectful of Time When Making Comments.
“If we don’t become curious or have value for what other people have to say, it is difficult to consistently fake the behaviors that demonstrate interest.”

12. Smile!
“Sometimes the most effective strategies are also the simplest. With rare exceptions, when we meet people who greet us with a smile, they are sending us important information about their intentions.”

Meshanko concludes with 3 key ingredients to improving your ability to demonstrate respect for others:

Respect is about you and me, not “them,” and our commitment to it influences everyone around us. Once we understand the value proposition respect offers, that insight can provide us with patience, courage, and creativity.

Patience permits us to maintain our composure and respectful demeanor when others are not acting at their best.

Courage enables us to candidly challenge disrespectful behavior and actions directed toward others.

Creativity allows us to see points of connection, even in the midst of conflict.

When we bring these qualities online and into our work interactions, everyone benefits, including our peers, customers, vendors, and ultimately, our shareholders.

* * *
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:13 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Personal Development

Nelson Mandela Dies Today at 95

FORMER South African President Nelson Mandela, died today at the age of 95. He spent 27 years in prison for battling the apartheid government, but it transformed him. He became the Mandela we know with a remarkable capacity to forgive and a moral courage that would heal the wounds of his country.

In 1993, he and Frederik Willem de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." He went on the following year to become South Africa's first black president.

Richard Stengel, who collaborated with Nelson Mandela on Mandela’s best-selling 1993 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, wrote an article for Time Magazine in 2008 in which he extracted 8 lessons of leadership from Mandela’s life:

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
   "I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world." But as a leader, you cannot let people know. "You must put up a front." He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.
2. Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
   For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about tactics, not principles. Throughout his life, he has always made that distinction. His unwavering principle — the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote — was immutable, but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic. He is the most pragmatic of idealists.
3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
   Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. "You know," he would say, "you can only lead them from behind." He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy. The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. "It is wise," he said, "to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea."
4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
   As far back as the 1960s, Mandela began studying Afrikaans, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid. His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner's worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs. He even brushed up on his knowledge of rugby, the Afrikaners' beloved sport, so he would be able to compare notes on teams and players.
5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
   Mandela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect on his rivals than on his allies. He cherished loyalty, but he was never obsessed by it. After all, he used to say, "people act in their own interest." It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect. The flip side of being an optimist — and he is one — is trusting people too much. But Mandela recognized that the way to deal with those he didn't trust was to neutralize them with charm.
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile
   When Mandela was running for the presidency in 1994, he knew that symbols mattered as much as substance. He was never a great public speaker, and people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. But more important was that dazzling, beatific, all-inclusive smile. For white South Africans, the smile symbolized Mandela's lack of bitterness and suggested that he was sympathetic to them. To black voters, it said, I am the happy warrior, and we will triumph.
7. Nothing is black or white
   Mandela is comfortable with contradiction. As a politician, he was a pragmatist who saw the world as infinitely nuanced. Every problem has many causes. Mandela's calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?
8. Quitting is leading too
   Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.

* * *

"We recall our terrible past so that we can deal with it, to forgive where forgiveness is necessary, without forgetting; to ensure that never again will such inhumanity tear us apart; and to move ourselves to eradicate a legacy that lurks dangerously as a threat to our democracy." (From the opening address at the debate on the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, February 1999)

"The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us." (From his Inaugural Speech as President of the Democratic Republic of South Africa, May 10, 1994)

* * *
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:26 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Leaders

Leading Through Uncertainty

IN times of great uncertainty, we must be leaders. In Leading Through Uncertainty, Ray Davis writes, “Effective leadership is motivating, and it can and should be the energy that propels a company through inevitable waves of change. Poor leadership can lead to disaster and has sunk more than a few companies and governments alike.”

Davis divides the book into three parts: leading yourself, leading your organization, and leading the way. He shares the ideas that have allowed Umpqua Bank—the West Coast’s largest independent community bank—to emerge from the economic crisis even stronger than before. The problem some will have with the book is that it requires a secure leader. A leader that can set his or her ego aside. And a leader that truly cares about their people, their organization, and the people they affect.

Leading through uncertainty means leading with the truth. People can handle the truth. “The negative energy created by worrying is replaced with positive, productive actions and attitudes.” Of course, some leaders are afraid of the truth because it incriminates them and exposes their weaknesses.

Davis says, “I always tell our people that they’re entitled to get answers to every question they have. I let them know I’m not going to defend myself when it comes to their questions, but I will explain what’s going on. I also tell them that while they’re entitled to answers to every question, that doesn’t mean they are going to like the answers.”

Being truthful means acknowledging the problem. Saying peace when there is no peace—saying everything is fine when it isn’t—is only whitewashing that will erode trust and peace.

You must have a firm foundation in the basics, says Davis, and then walk the walk and talk the talk. We’re all busy but listening is essential. “I think it is a mistake for people in my position not to make themselves available to their customers, their people, and the community at large.” When you don’t have all the answers, listening goes a long way.

Leaders don’t lead in a vacuum. Secure leaders reach out to others. They give them the ability to provide constructive criticism which is hugely valuable of and by itself but it also serves to motivate and keep people involved in the process. “How else can a company get better if it’s not willing to listen to constructive criticism if it’s not willing to listen to what it’s not doing as well as it could? If you’re not willing to listen, you’re not going to improve and you’re not going to grow.”

Great leadership begins with us. “I believe this starts with an introspective and honest inventory—first of yourself and then of your organization. Companies regularly evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to make sure they are focused on the right issues. I wonder, however, how many leaders do the same evaluation on themselves. I recommend this as a good starting point.”

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:22 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Change , Leadership

First Look: Leadership Books for December 2013

Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December.

  Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly by Mike Myatt
  Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem
  Lead & Influence: Get More Ownership, Commitment, and Achievement From Your Team by Mark Fritz
  The Way of the SEAL: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed by Mark Divine with Allyson E. Machete
  Beyond the Job Description: How Managers and Employees Can Navigate the True Demands of the Job by Jesse Sostrin



For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273

From Independent Publishers:

Thoughts Spoken from the Heart by Lolly Daskal
Daskal has put together over 500 thoughts that bring meaning to your life. Her hope is that “each thought will provide you with a meaningful perspective of yourself and the word around you.”



Build your leadership library with these specials on over 120 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities.

Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:02 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Books