Category Archives: Leadership Traits

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Leadership is… Involving

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Involved - 1Leadership is involving is the third in this short series.  In case you have missed the first two, here are links to those articles.  The first one was Leadership is . . .  Modeling.  And the second one was Leadership is . . .  Teaching.  But today I want to focus on involving others through our leadership.

After we have modeled our convictions, purpose and plan and then shared with others where we are headed and how they can be a vital part of that process, then we must begin involving people.

It is not enough to plan and structure things. It is not enough to have goals and action steps, we must involve and engage people in the actual implementation. Involving begins during the previous stage of teaching/learning because it simply won’t work to tell others what the vision and plan is and how they fit in it without giving them opportunity to contribute to the formation of the vision and plan.

Involved - 2Even if you have the leverage of certain extrinsic motivators,

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Leaders Encourage Vigorous Debate

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Vigorous Debate - 1Great leaders know how to focus on the positive, helpful, edifying and uplifting communication while managing the negative, destructive, decisive and demeaning communication in meetings.

Consider this advice from a seasoned old-timer to a young leader who was still early in his leadership career. It happens to be from the New Testament of the Bible.

“But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.” 

Titus 3:9-10

Have you ever been in a meeting that digressed and evolved into almost a free-for-all? As a contrast, have you ever been in a team meeting where the leader encouraged good debates and successfully squashed useless ones?

Such well-managed teams tend to finish their meetings with good plans and they do it on time. The participants feel productive and actually like getting together because everyone feels like they were a part of something productive.

But, back to my brief Biblical text. The Apostle Paul (the old-timer) exhorted a pastor (young leader) named Titus to refrain from arguing about peripheral subjects that divided his followers.  And I think that advice is relevant to leadership principles today.

There is a branch of modern communication theory that seems to have grown out of the apostle Paul’s philosophy. In 1968, Sir Charles Geoffrey Vickers, an English lawyer, administrator, writer, and pioneering systems scientist introduced the concept of “appreciative systems”, which later became Appreciative Inquiry (AI). It was really further developed nearly 20 years later at Case Western Reserve University’s department of Organizational Behavior. It started there with an article in 1987 by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva. They felt that the overuse of “problem solving” as a model often held back analysis and understanding, focusing on problems and limiting discussion of new organizational models. At its core, AI is positive debate that explores what an organization does well and how it can build on its strengths.

Vigorous Debate - 3As leaders it’s sometimes difficult to limit discussion and keep debates from getting out of control.

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What in the World?

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Who do you trust?  Who do you believe anymore?

Ebola has come to the United States of America. Our President, the leader of the free world said it would not. He was wrong. Maybe the open border policy is not a good one.

The Center for Disease Control says we should not panic and this is an isolated case. This new plague can be easily contained and there is no issue. Nothing to see here.  Purchase your Starbucks and watch your Netflix.  Just remember to wash your hands.  Maybe this disease is weapon-ized and we should be wondering what religion Patient Zero subscribes.

Okay, let’s calm down for a moment. 

My point — A track record of double speak, political correctness, and failed leadership breeds distrust and hostility towards authority.

As a leader of a small team, project or a free republic, our words have consequences. Our credibility can shape the morale and effectiveness of our team or the direction of a nation.

It started with- “You like your healthcare…you can keep it.” To “Read my lips…No new taxes.” Don’t forget — “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

What we are witnessing today in our country and communities is failed leadership.  From the top down in every aspect of execution…this crosses political and ideological lines.

I will never be on television managing a crisis but as a leader in my home, my church, my job, and my marriage I can subscribe to the following:

Be slow to speak and quick to listen.

Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Be truthful.

Just my two cents.  Excuse me.  I’m going to wash my hands.

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Leadership is… Teaching

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Teaching - 1Leadership is teaching.

We must tell others what we are attempting, why we are doing it, how we plan on getting there and how to avoid pitfalls along the way. As leaders we can never assume that the people we are leading know what we are thinking or reaching for.

As we live out our personal mission we must constantly be attentive to leading others through teaching. We must explain why we do what we do, and we must invite others to join us. We cannot be timid in our recruiting or our teaching. Our words must be clear and purposeful.

Teaching - 2Our teaching must be about more than just vision, but also about the process. But let me be clear here: the teaching of leadership doesn’t only go one way. In many ways this facet of leadership could be titled “learning” because not only will our team be learning but we will be as well. Sometimes we are the teacher, sometimes one of our team is doing the teaching and of course many times it is the circumstances and failures along the way that teach us the most.

As leaders we must teach and we must learn, because if we do not then we ourselves, not to mention our team and our organization, will stagnate and become irrelevant and useless.

Photo credit: ben110 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
Photo credit: Gates Foundation / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
Photo credit: Forty Two. / Foter / CC BY-NC

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Talkative Leadership

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Talkative Leadership - 1This past Sunday I stood up in front of a large group of people and talked.  And talked, and talked, and talked.  I ended up talking for 10 minutes.  I was trying to encourage people, and to lead them.  I was trying to be the leader I thought I was hired to be.  I really did.

The problem is that I wasn’t hired to be “that” type of leader.  I wasn’t hired to talk a lot.  I was hired to lead, but in a completely different manner.

So what’s the problem you ask?  If I was trying to do something positive then all is well, right?  Well yes and no actually.  Trying to do something positive is good, but when it is done at the expense of something better it’s less good.  By taking so much time talking, I stole time from the person who was hired to lead by talking, and therefore robbed the audience of more leadership from him.

Talkative Leadership - 2Which leads me to my point.  

Sometimes good leadership means

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The NFL: Major Leadership Fail

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I was on Facebook the other day and I saw this post-“Wanted: an obedience school that trains puppies AND sweet little 2 year old girls.” Of course, I couldn’t resist and I threw my comment into the fray: ” I hear the NFL may have some Subject Matter Experts. They can even help with Spousal issues as well.”

Let’s face it the NFL is having a bad public relations year. They are a very easy target to bash. I believe this was a long time coming. Now…I’m not going to argue that old tired argument about men getting paid millions and millions of dollars to play a child’s game. You have never turned down a paycheck. Get over it. That’s capitalism. And if someone is willing to pay what you think you are worth. Amen. If you don’t think Sports is profitable-Johnny Manziel built the new Kyle Field. But I digress.

I believe the NFL failed when it stopped doing what it does best. Football.

Howard Cosell was fired for describing the amazing elusiveness of a black player similar to a little monkey getting loose. It started. The NFL began worrying about social issues and racial sensitivities. Now everyone was on edge. Ironically, the black player played on the Washington REDSKINS. (In reality, ABC fired Cosell not the NFL.)

The NFL eliminated celebrations after touchdowns. Unfortunately, one of my football heroes lead the crusade-Tom Landry. In other words, the NFL began punishing success. We didn’t want to rub it in. We don’t want to offend the players, coaches, and fans who we just scored on. Thus was born participation medals.

Vince Lombardi stated-“When you get to the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.” That’s why I loved Barry Sanders. He would score, lay the ball down, and sprint out of the end zone. The NFL took away the players’ discretion on how to celebrate a score. Remember running back Ickey Woods celebrating on the sidelines after a touchdown because he was banned from the end zone? At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. Now players can’t dunk a football over the goal post. It might offend basketball players.

Hablas Espanol? Then the NFL tried to reach our friends who love Futbol by patronizing them with Spanish translations painted on the football field. Suddenly, the National Football League became ambassadors to assist with our illegal immigration issue. Nu’ff said. I’m just shaking my head.

Breast Cancer Awareness. The Pink on the field is enough. I have cancer survivors in my family. I am not being callous. There may be a Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Purple will dominate the football field. (Isn’t purple made up of black and blue?)  Ridiculous isn’t it.  Where does it stop? All this takes the focus off of what NFL does best-Football.

Now, a lot of good may have come from all this. But to me it is a perfect example of failed leadership and losing sight of what you do best.

What will save the NFL? Fantasy Football. Men and women tired of the politics of the teams, commercialism, and stupid rules have now turned to building their own teams and just reading Stat sheets on Sunday evening instead of actually watching the game.

Sadly, I can remember wanting to watch every down of every game.

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Adaptive Leadership

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Adaptive Leadership - 1So many of the world’s problems, and the issues that organizations, businesses, and people face every day can seem intractable and unsolvable. Leadership consultants Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky discussed a new way to lead the charge to change in their book in 2009 entitled, “Adaptive Leadership”.

Adaptive Leadership calls for moving beyond outdated approaches and embracing new skills and attitudes to guide your organization in the 21st century. Adaptive leadership combines established ways of leading with new skills and new perspectives for dealing with unprecedented challenges.

But, if it were easy, everyone would be adaptive leaders and everyone would be successful.  Before you begin the process of bringing lasting change to an organization you must

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Listening for the Future

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Listening Leaders - 1Great leaders are always “listening for the future” all the while staying grounded in the here and the now.

That sounds impressive and insightful.  But what does it mean?  Simply, it means that our society is evolving into a noisy, chaotic world; characterized by “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity” (This is what “Futurist” Bob Johansen refers to as “VUCA”).

Elements of the VUCA paradigm have existed throughout history, but never to the extent evident in the early 21st century.  Leaders who make decisions without regard to VUCA realities tend to exhibit various “dysfunctional and dangerous” attitudes and reactions, including fear, disdain, procrastination, frustration, anger and denial.  And I am not exactly sure where the anger is strongest.  Is it on the side of those who loath their leaders?  Or is it on the side of the leaders who loath the burden of leadership?

Nevertheless, there are enduring leadership principles that will hold you in good stead during these VUCA times.  Consider the following:

  • To be on time is to be late. – Get there early.  Get there before your team arrives and be ready to greet them as they arrive for the day or for the meeting.
  • Always start on time.  – Don’t punish those who are on time for the sins of those who are late.  And don’t go back over what you have already covered for those who do arrive late.
  • Mental gymnastics.  – Build leadership skills through leadership thoughts.  Read and study other great leaders.
  • Listening Leaders - 2Actively listen.  – But carefully filter what you hear.  Make sure that in the midst of your listening that you are not swayed by an emotional message that takes you away from your core values.
  • Be ready for action.  – We are living in a fast paced world and in the face of uncertainty, preparedness is a great benefit.
  • Practice “urgent patience”. – Know when to press forward and when to ease up on your team.
  • Be a storyteller. – Use compelling stories to inspire hope in your team.
  • Observe synchronicity. – Nothing occurs in a vacuum.  So explain connections and patterns to help others find the reason for your actions.
  • Stay positive.  – It is easy to succumb to the negativity that surrounds us.  We get a steady diet of it on the news and from the media.  Do not dwell on this.  [I could speak at length here about the importance of being in some type of daily devotional reading, but I will save that for another time and place.]
  • Don’t spread yourself too thin.  – You cannot directly lead a multitude.  So, find a small group of leaders to develop and pour yourself into them and make them into great leaders.  Don’t make them clones.  Make them leaders.

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Leadership is… Modeling

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Modeling - 1Leadership is leading, but perhaps first it is living.

We must live what we know is right and pursue the goals and steps we know are important to live out our purpose. In other words as leaders we must let our lives model our convictions. As those who have been given charge of a group of people we must model what we are advocating and live out loud the lifestyle and practices that we are hoping they will one day emulate. In order to have credibility we must be authentic and live what we teach. Not only this but because people learn in so many different ways a multi-sensory approach to training and equipping is a must.

Furthermore,

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Wit & Wisdom from Midland County, TX

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Gary Painter on Fox News

I love living in Texas.  I usually tell people that I was born in way extreme far east Texas. [better known as Alexandria, Louisiana].  And you get wit & wisdom out of folks in Texas that you don’t seem to find in or around the Capital Beltway.  I know, because I lived in that area for quite a while also.

I don’t often tackle politics in my writing.  And I really am not trying to tackle politics right now. Instead I think there is a leadership lesson to be learned here.  Consider if you will for just a moment Sheriff Gary Painter from Midland County in Texas.  Recently he was interviewed on Fox News about the ISIS threat to the United States.  Consistent with what he has been saying for at least 8 years he made the following statement.  I am providing it below with advance apologies for some of his language as I never want to offend our readers. But here is his quote:

“If they show their ugly head in our area, we’ll send them to hell.
I think the United States needs to get busy and they need to bomb them.
They need to take them out. I would like for them to hit them so hard and so often that every time they hear a propeller on a plane or a jet aircraft engine that they urinate down both legs.”

Contrast that with our President who calls them the “JV squad” and who doesn’t have a plan to deal with them.  And ask yourself for a moment,

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