~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LEADERSHIP WIRED John C. Maxwell's FREE Semimonthly Newsletter Designed To Maximize Your Leadership Potential. November 2005 - Volume 8, Issue 22 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In This Issue: * Maxwell Moment – Getting from Here to There * Leadership@Large – Surveying the Leadership Landscape * Interview – Check Your Ego at the Door * Quick Quotes – Leadership is... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maxwell Moment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE By Dr. John C. Maxwell When I travel, my daily agenda is always full. I don't get up late, linger over breakfast, and then start meandering down one country road after another, just to see where they might lead. I'm up early, ready to cram as much into each day as I possibly can. I know exactly where I want to go and, map in hand, I know how to get there. Come to think of it, that's also how I approach life. I can't just let life happen to me. I need a road map that shows me how to get from where I am now to where I want to be in the future. Of course, if I want to be successful, I can't just leave the roadmap in the glove box. I have to follow it. Diligently. In our series about traveling through life, we've already talked about traveling light (getting rid of excess emotional baggage and keeping "short accounts") and taking someone with you. Today, my traveling tip is to follow the roadmap. In life, a roadmap is akin to a game plan—a carefully thought-out strategy for achieving success. My game plan probably doesn't look exactly like yours, because my definition of success might be different from yours. But the fact that we might be following slightly different roadmaps doesn't negate the wisdom of using one in the first place. As the saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you're likely to get it. Regardless of our position and station in life, following the roadmap means: 1. Knowing where you are at this moment. How can you know where you are at this moment? The key word is reflection. 2. Knowing where you want to go. For me, success is knowing my purpose in life, growing to my maximum potential and sowing seeds that benefit others. That's where I want to go. 3. Understanding that life happens between where you are at this moment and where you want to go, and that it's the "between where you are and where you want to go" that causes people to miss life. Some people have what I call "destination disease." They live life thinking, "When I get promoted, I'll be fulfilled" or, "When I get married, I'll be happy" or "If I could just meet that person, I'll be on my way." It's good to plan for the days ahead, but if you're basing all your hopes for fulfillment on some future event, you're actually missing out on the essence of life itself. As John Lennon once wisely observed, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." When it comes to traveling through life, I can't over-emphasize the importance of following the roadmap. But it's also crucial to note that, even if you're following the best map ever made, you'll most likely have to stop and ask for directions from time to time. I'm well aware that this practice is excruciatingly difficult for some of us. And we just might be stubborn and persistent enough to avoid doing it, at least when we're driving somewhere in a car. But in the journey we call life, people who refuse to stop and ask for directions aren't stubborn or persistent; they're foolish. Unfortunately, an unwillingness to seek advice is all too common among businesspeople today. In The Corporate Steeplechase, New York social psychologist Srully Blotnick says that career men and women in their twenties tend to be ashamed to ask questions, and in their thirties, the desire to be individualistic makes it difficult for them to counsel with colleagues. The value of advice becomes clear only with maturity, he writes. That's so true. As philosopher John Collins has noted, "To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it." That said, people often make the mistake of following advice without carefully evaluating it first. To avoid this common error, ask yourself the following questions when appraising the validity of any piece of advice: 1. How credible is the source? 2. Am I getting the same advice from different people? 3. Have I made allowances for any biases, pro or con, an advice giver may have? 4. Have I talked with more than one person so I have a basis for judging the advice? 5. Am I in an emotional state to act wisely on this advice? 6. What is the ratio between the potential cost of acting on the advice and the potential benefit that it may hold? Taking the time to stop and ask for directions might seem like a big hassle when you're busy with the daily stuff of life. And to some, sticking to a roadmap might seem unnecessarily restrictive. But as one traveler to another, I encourage you to make both a priority. Otherwise, you just might end up on a fast road to nowhere. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Leadership@Large ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SPIRITUALLY INTELLIGENT LEADERSHIP Since Daniel Goleman's landmark book, "Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ" was originally published in 1995, much has been written about the kind of intelligence that senses where others are coming from and is keenly aware of one's own strengths and weaknesses. In the Fall 2005 issue of "Leader to Leader" magazine, Danah Zohar—a physicist, philosopher and management thought leader— describes another type of aptitude that contributes to great leadership: spiritual intelligence. SQ, as she calls it, doesn't necessarily refer to a particular religion or religious practice; rather, "it is an ability to access higher meanings, values, abiding purposes and unconscious aspects of the self and to embed these meanings, values and purposes in living a richer and more creative life." Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa are a few examples of visionary leaders who were guided by a strong SQ, Zohar writes. "The secret of their leadership was their ability to inspire people, to give them a sense of something worth struggling for," she says. Not every leader is strong in SQ, but Zohar says it can be nurtured and developed by applying a number of principles, including: • Self-awareness. As opposed to Goleman's self-awareness, which "refers to knowing what we're feeling at any given moment," spiritual self-awareness means recognizing what we care about, what we live for and what we would die for. "It's to live true to myself while respecting others," Zohar writes. • Field independence. This involves being willing to be unpopular for what we believe in. "It's a willingness to go it alone, but only after carefully considering what others have to say," she adds. "Any visionary leader must, almost by definition, stand alone sometimes." • Humility. This is the flip side of field independence, "whereby I recognize that I am one actor in a larger play and that I might be wrong," Zohar explains. "So I question myself ruthlessly. Am I right to think what I do? Have I listened to all the arguments about it? … Humility makes a leader great, not small." To read more, see: http://www.leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/l2l/fall2005/zohar.html _________________________________________________________________ EXTREME EXECS In a society where extreme sports are all the rage, it's not especially surprising that more and more senior leaders are bypassing the golf course in favor of more strenuous activities such as triathlons and adventure races. "A growing number of businesspeople … are defying the stereotype of the well-padded executive whose idea of exercise is a stroll around the links followed by a much-deserved stop at the 19th hole," "BusinessWeek" reports. "Instead, they're vying for a new title—‘chief endurance officer'—by rising at 4 a.m. and pursuing brutal training schedules while juggling family and corporate duties." Some CEOs are able to find time to train for rigorous sporting events by "focusing the same energies on athletics that they pour into their profession," the magazine states. That's the case for 41-year-old Linda A. Rahal, the president and COO of a Washington, D.C., law firm. "Ironman training and racing is how I approach life: Set high standards and work extraordinarily hard," she says. When it comes to overall health and wellness, maintaining the fitness level required to complete a marathon has obvious benefits. But endurance training also can help change a CEO's whole approach to business, says Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia.com. "In a world where you expect immediate results for everything you do, it's very satisfying to slowly but surely put time in and build up to do something you couldn't do six months before," he explains. "That's a lesson you lose track of in business, especially when throttled on quarterly results." To read more, see: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_42/b3955104.htm?campaign_id=smlbz_Oct19&link_position=link10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Book Review ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHECK YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR When John Brandt joined "IndustryWeek" in 1994, the magazine had been losing money for more than a decade. Under his watch, the publication reversed its fortunes, winning dozens of excellence awards and returning solidly to the black financially. Later, Brandt moved on to "Chief Executive", another magazine in desperate need of a turnaround. And once again, his leadership helped stage a comeback for a troubled business periodical. Now an internationally recognized consultant, Brandt uses his more than two decades of experience in marketing, technology and management to help organizations around the world adapt to new markets and corporate structures. He also continues to write a monthly column, "Brandt on Leadership," for "IndustryWeek". We spoke with him recently about his writing, his passion for turnarounds and why it's important for leaders to demonstrate a good sense of humor. Leadership Wired: It seems somewhat ironic that two publications geared toward top leaders—"IndustryWeek" and "Chief Executive"— would struggle themselves. From a leadership standpoint, what sorts of things did you do to help turn the tide at these magazines and make them successful again? John Brandt: First, it's important to say it wasn't just me. I think that's probably true anywhere there's a turnaround. It's rarely ever one person who does it, just because most great things that get done are accomplished by teams and organizations that are committed to doing something great. Beyond that, any time you do a turnaround, whether it is those specific ones or anywhere else, first and foremost, you have to have a goal that is bigger than business itself. Most people don't go to work with the idea that they just want to help some faceless company make money. Yes, they want to feed their families, but really and truly everybody would like to be involved in something larger than themselves—something that's important. And with great organizations, what you typically see is that they have a mission which is broader than how do we grow this company or how do we make money. It's that we want to cure cancer. It's that we want help people to be happier in their lives. Any variety of things. So with both of those magazines, one of the things we did is just get together and ask, "What is the goal we have beyond just being a successful magazine? And how do you do that?" Once you do that, what you start finding is a lot of times organizations, over a period of years, sort of calcify—they have all these rules that get set up inside about how we don't do this or we don't do that. Sometimes, it takes somebody who has a fresh view to say, "Why do we do it that way? Why is that important?" And the answer is often, "Well, we've always done it that way." To which I say: "Well, let's try doing it differently for awhile." Then, every great organization, whether they're doing a turnaround or not, figures out a way to have all their employees involved—involved in decision making, involved in really satisfying customers and working toward that larger goal. I can't think of a truly great company where I haven't seen people who have lots of decision-making authority and the ability to make things right. Typically when you find struggling companies and when you, in your own life, deal with a company that really frustrates you, it's because somebody looks at you and says, "Oh, I'm not allowed to do that. The rules say XYZ." Even if the rules are completely nonsense. LW: Did you enjoy doing turnarounds? Brandt: I loved it. But I will say that, although it's very hard and it's very stressful, I think it's easier than growing a business. Because when you're doing a turnaround, you pretty much know every day what you have to do. You have to get more cash in than is going out; you have to figure out how to plug all the leaks. You may not be able to do it, but you know what you have to do. The hard part for businesses that do a turnaround comes after you've turned that corner and all of a sudden you've had a little bit of success. What happens is that as soon as you've had that success, everyone who wouldn't return your phone calls before, now wants to be your partner. Your first temptation is to say yes to everybody. And the hardest thing, when you go back into that mode where you're ready to grow again, is where do you spend your time and effort? What are the things you need to focus on? What are the things that are in keeping with that core mission that you established as part of your turnaround plan? What are some of the things that are maybe just going to be a distraction? I think, perversely enough, you hear about the very stressful turnaround. Stressful, yes. But it's harder to know how to grow a business because that involves the thing that human beings find the hardest thing of all—saying no and making choices. LW: Speaking of choices, how do you choose your column topics? Brandt: I really wish I knew because then it would be easier. I just try to keep my eyes and ears open for what people are worried about. Some of it comes from my experiences running companies or consulting with companies or studying companies. And, of course, there are lots of ways to tell somebody something. You can just tell them something, but a lot of us get told a lot of things. I think it's sometimes easier to hear a message if there's a little humor involved in it. So I try to look for things where I see trends, or I see managers or leaders who are falling down, and I try to take a different spin on it. I think we all need a little more fun in our day, so if I can get someone to smile, then that's a victory in and of itself. And if they can learn a little something while they're at it, so much the better. LW: Have you ever written a column that you were happy with but the response just floored you for whatever reason? Brandt: I've had that happen a number of times, and I've had the opposite happen too. I've had many times where I wrote a column and I thought, "This is great, this is really important, I'm really getting a good message out," and it just kind of falls flat. And I've had the occasion where an idea just appears to me out of nowhere and the column almost writes itself. It's on the page in 15 minutes, and I think, "Well, that was just a little bit of nothing." Then I get e-mail after e-mail saying, "Oh, you hit it right on the head." I think that's somehow a reflection of the creative process. I would argue that those things that I write in 15 minutes probably didn't take 15 minutes; it probably took me my whole life and happened to culminate and be right at that particular moment. I wish I could explain it—it certainly would make life simpler for me and you and everybody else that tries to be creative. But unfortunately, it doesn't quite work that way. LW: Your sense of humor comes through loud and strong in your writing. Is it important for leaders to demonstrate a good sense of humor—not of the joke-telling variety, but just in their overall approach to life? Brandt: I would say it's very important, but I think it's important in an appropriate way. There are just some people who aren't funny, and there are just some people who aren't comfortable telling a joke. And they shouldn't feel like you can't be a leader if you can't do that. That's certainly not true. The important part of humor is not so much the humor or the laughing itself. It's that any time people see humor in a situation, it's because they're able to have a little bit of perspective on it and view it at a little distance. That is what's so important for a leader or for an organization—to be able to step back and take a look at the overall situation. Humor is a very obvious and tremendously fun way to do that. The important part about it is not necessarily just the laughs, although I would argue that it's never a bad thing to have people laugh a little bit during the day. But I think the more important aspect is this whole idea of not taking ourselves quite so seriously. We may have a very serious mission, but we need to have a little humility about who we are. Where you see leaders who do not have a sense of humor and when people say they don't have a sense a humor, I don't think what they're responding to is that they're annoyed because they didn't get to laugh at a joke during the day. I think what people are saying is that this is somebody who has no broader perspective on themselves, on the business and, in effect, almost ends up with a lack humility and an exaggerated case of self-importance. Those are very, very dangerous things for a leader to have and to let be on display, and certainly the easiest way to display that is to have no sense of humor about yourself and your position. It's so important to be precise here. You have to be deadly serious about doing a good job at what you do. You have to have your eye on some larger mission, something more important than just dollars and cents for it to be meaningful and for you to create an opportunity for people to do great things. All that said, you can't be serious about how important you yourself are to the mission or the enterprise. You have to understand that, ultimately, you are replaceable and that someday you will be replaced, whether you want to be or not. That's why humor is so good and useful. Not just for the laughs, but for the perspective it provides. LW: Why are leaders so fond of using clichés in their communication? Are they effective? Brandt: With a bunch of high school kids on a volleyball or football team, I suppose they're probably effective. I don't think they work with grownups. (Which is not to say that every employee is a grownup; there are plenty of people who have adult bodies but not necessarily adult ways of relating to the world.) Why do people use them? Because it's easier than thinking. It's a good shorthand way to get across what they think they mean. The problem is, and I am the worst offender when it comes to using quotations, is that it's often a substitute for original thought and for real communications. In its worst form in American corporations, it's a very cheap substitute for actually getting employees involved. The idea being that if we have a slogan and if we whip people into a frenzy and we give them T-shirts, that somehow that will show that our employees are involved and engaged, which is a lot easier than actually making them partners, listening to them and giving them decision- making authority. Because the first thing that happens when you actually get employees involved in a business and they actually feel like they have a stake in what's going on, is they start questioning you. And there are a lot of leaders who are very uncomfortable with that. They are very title-centric, very into the position, don't have much perspective on themselves or don't have a very good regard for themselves in the first place. They're taking their own self-worth—to get a little psychological here—from their job, so to have somebody question them sort of questions their whole being. So why do leaders use clichés? Because it's easy. It may not work, but if it's a cliché, these leaders tell themselves, it must have worked for somebody at some time. LW: Throughout the various phases of your career, you've undoubtedly been exposed to most of the management and leadership trends and fads that have come and (perhaps) gone over the last few decades. Of those, which ones have had staying power? Brandt: Well, you sure don't hear much about reengineering anymore, do you? That may be because people call it by different names. I think there are a couple ways to look at this. One is that they're all a bunch of fads, although I would say that some of them have tremendous staying power. Lean, for example, has been used by Toyota since the 1940s, and they seem to have done OK. So that's got some staying power. I think it's less about the specific program. There are some things that are just so clearly fads that you can just look them and you know they've just been invented by a consultant somewhere who wants to have a prettier name for the same old stuff. The thing that's more important, and what I see in the work and research we do, is that it's sometimes less important which improvement philosophy you pick, as long you pick something to live by it; that you commit to it and articulate it and make it not just a fad of the month club but something that you're really going to use over a period of years. Some of the research that we've done actually indicates that it is significantly less important which improvement methodology you pick as opposed to the fact that you stick with the one you picked and have a complete implementation over the long term. Where we run into trouble is when we leap after this fad, after that fad, after this fad and employees just become exhausted because they know you're not actually serious about any of them. All their energy has to be devoted to, "How do we survive until they forget about this fad?" instead of making a concerted effort to improve the business, which always starts with a vision. It starts with a leader who can voice that vision, and then it continues with "Are you willing to make real changes in the business, to put decision making close to customers? Are you willing to commit to hiring the best talent and then once you get it, training it to make sure it's the best? And are you willing to, as a leader, be humble and check your ego at the door and understand that your whole job is to make everybody else more successful?" If you answer those questions and say yes to those honestly, you probably don't need a new management fad. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quick Quotes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LEADERSHIP IS... "Leadership is the initiation and direction of endeavor in the pursuit of consequence. Anything else is criticism from janitors." — Royal Alcott "Leadership is action, not position." — Donald H. McGannon "Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done." — Vance Packard _________________________________________________________________ Leadership Wired is written by Dr. John C. Maxwell and is available via e-mail on a free subscription basis. You can subscribe at: www.INJOY.com/Newsletters. Questions about document transmission or editorial comments? Contact mailto:feedback@INJOY.com. 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