Children astound me with their inquisitive minds. The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask “Why?” ceaselessly. Why can’t they have another cookie? Why can’t they stay up after 9:00 pm? Why do they have to share their toys? Why does grandpa have white hair?

As we age, it seems our childlike curiosity diminishes. Yet, after all I have learned, I realize there’s even more I’ve not yet discovered. Through my leadership journey I’ve tried to keep my mind open to growth by continuing to probe for new ideas. In this edition of Leadership Wired, I’d like to share with you the questions I regularly ask myself as a leader.

Questions I Ask Myself

1. Am I investing in myself?

   This is a personal growth question.

   Lifelong learners have a common set of characteristics:

   (1) They develop a personal growth plan.
   (2) They possess a teachable attitude.
   (3) They invest in growth-oriented resources and relationships.
   (4) They continually leave their comfort zone.
   (5) They capture what they learn by applying their knowledge.
   (6) They reflect on what they learn and turn experience into insight.
   (7) They pass on what they learn to others.

2. Am I Genuinely Interested In Others?

   This is a motive question.

   Leaders see before others see, and they see more than others see. Since leaders “figure it out” first, they can be tempted to take advantage of others. Self-centered leaders manipulate when they move people for personal benefit. Mature leaders motivate by moving people for mutual benefit. They place what’s best for others above themselves.

3. Am I Doing What I Love and Loving What I Do?

   This is a passion question.
   
   You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise. You are nothing unless it comes from your heart. If you go to work only to cycle through rote processes and functions, then you are effectively retired. It scares me when most people I see, by age 28, are retired. To be a difference-maker, you have to bring passion, commitment, and caring to your career. Passion gives you the energy advantage over others.

4. Am I Investing My Time with the Right People?

   This is a relationship question.

   Most people can trace their successes and failures to the relationships in their lives. Be selective about who you join with on the leadership journey. Choose companions with a commitment to personal growth, a healthy attitude, and high potential.

5. Am I Staying in My Strength Zone?

   This is an effectiveness question.

   Effective leaders stop working on their weaknesses and diligently develop their strengths. You don’t have to be a jack of all trades. Delegation frees you to focus on what only you can offer to your organization.

6. Am I Taking Others to a Higher Level?

   This is a mission question.
   
   My success is determined by the seeds I sow, not the harvest I reap. My life mission is to add value to leaders who will multiply value to others. Leaders add value to others rather than accumulating value for themselves.

   Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best: “Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”

7. Am I Taking Care of Today?

   This is a success question.

   The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. Are the habits in your life steering your toward success or simply frittering away your time? Be serious about making each day count.

8. Am I Taking Time To Think?

   This is a leadership question.

   A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk. Taking time to think allows you to live life purposefully. Don’t let life’s circumstances dictate your path or allow the expectations of others to determine your course. Author your own life by clearing your schedule for thinking.

9. Am I Developing Leaders?

   This is a legacy question.

   “The ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teaches others to be leaders and builds an organization that can sustain its success even when he or she is not around. True leaders put ego aside and strive to create successors who go beyond them.”

   ~ Lorin Woolfe

10. Am I Pleasing God?

    This is an eternity question.

    In the light of history, our years are short and our days are few. Yet, our lives have greater significance than we can imagine. As the Roman general, Maximus, exhorts his men in Gladiator, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” Live your life honorably and with a clean conscience before God and your fellow man. Focus your effort on worthwhile causes that will outlast your time on this planet.
    

In the most recent volume of Leader to Leader, Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson, authors of Success Built to Last, attribute a leader's sustained success to the strength of the cause they pursue: "Enduringly successful people serve the cause--and they are lifted up by its power." Great leaders have a burning passion to make a difference which fuels their action.

Self-centered leadership is inherently limited. As Porras, Emery, and Thompson assert, wealth neither lasts nor satisfies. Power and fame are fleeting and fade quickly. Causes endure, causes fulfill, causes make a difference.

A leader's personal charisma is dwarfed by the charisma of the cause. Perhaps no leader demonstrates this concept more clearly than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A gifted speaker and charismatic leader, Dr. King burned with the flame of justice. His personal appeal was substantial, but it was trumped of the immensity of his dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today."

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated the dream, but it was not his alone. The dream was bubbling in the hearts of women in the back of buses, children forbidden to drink from the same fountain as their friends, and businessmen unable to get a fair shot at success due to the color of their skin. The dream had simmered for years in the African-American community long before King dared to speak it boldly and proclaim it persistently.

The dream beckoned civil rights activists from the four corners of America and around to globe to demonstrate for freedom in the Deep South. The dream mobilized marches and swayed congressmen. The dream inspired poets, and lifted up the heads of the oppressed. The dream gave a voice to those suffering in silence and spawned a movement for civil rights.

The dream supplied freedom marchers with resolve in the wake of threats and abuse. The dream gave boldness to students confronting the barrier of segregation. The dream loaned strength to Martin Luther King, Jr. through endless days, sleepless nights, and journeys to challenge the ugliest and most flagrant forms of racism in the USA.

Martin Luther King, Jr. always placed more faith in the power of the dream than in his personal charisma. Perhaps that's why he was able to speak so confidently about the dream on the eve of his death, "It really doesn't matter with me now, because I have been to the mountaintop." Although the security of his life was uncertain, the fate of the dream was sure. The dream had gathered into a massive wave moving the nation toward justice and equality, and no racist governor or white supremacy group could stem its tide. The dream was destined to change the country and bestow rights, long withheld, upon African-Americans.

MLK had seen the dream, and to that his life was devoted. Power, prestige, or awards mattered little. King lived his life for the dream, and watching it unfold was the greatest reward he could have possibly imagined.

To further explore the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., go to http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/mlk/king/. To read the full text of "The Cause Has Charisma" by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson, visit the Leader to Leader Institute online at: http://www.leadertoleader.org/knowledgecenter/L2L/winter2007/thompson.html

Five warning signs that technology is turning you into a machine:

• Instead of reading to your children, you e-mail them web-interactive bedtime stories.
• You’ve been known to e-mail your spouse when he/she is in the same room of the house as you are.
• Given your habit of communicating entirely via e-mail, you haven’t spoken to your cubicle neighbor in over three years.
• You’ve been hospitalized after spraining a thumb on your Blackberry.
• You unwittingly offend your friends by simply saying “LOL” rather than actually laughing at their jokes.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact date, but at some point, e-mail became the standard inter-office communication link between colleagues across America. Along the way, e-mail has revolutionized the workplace, all but eliminating face-to-face contact and drastically cutting down on the number of phone calls between co-workers.

The advantages of e-mail in facilitating business correspondence cannot be underestimated, but when an office depends solely on e-mail to communicate, problems can arise. In a December article for BusinessWeek, Diane Brady looks at the dangers of over-relying on e-mail.

Misunderstanding

As much as 90% of all communication is non-verbal, which puts e-mail messages in danger of misinterpretation. In the absence of body language, voice inflection, or facial expressions, an e-mail’s tone and meaning may be difficult to decipher. Diane Brady points to a study by the New York University which concluded that, “As few as 50% of users grasp the tone or intent of an e-mail and that most people vastly overestimate their ability to relay and comprehend messages accurately.” Given the likelihood of misunderstanding, experts advise avoiding e-mail when dealing with delicate issues such as, “major announcements, firings, job evaluations, and any form of criticism.”

Loss of Humanity

Cloistered in a cubicle, workers can begin to feel more like machines than people. An entire day spent staring at a computer screen can be lonely and disheartening. In her article for BusinessWeek, Diane Brady cites Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence, who claims “Business has undervalued the social dimension of communication.”

Workers want to forge meaningful connections with their colleagues. Face-to-face interaction boosts morale by providing needed diversion from the day’s work, and uniting teammates together as they learn about one another’s families, interests, and weekend plans. For managers, stopping by a cubicle and giving a word of encouragement or greeting communicates tremendous value to those they lead.

Diminished Synergy

The interplay of ideas is hindered by back-and-forth e-mail barrages. Teams need to join forces face-to-face to brainstorm solutions to pressing problems or to come up with creative ways to serve their customers. The synergy of a team comes alive when they can sense one another’s passion, catch the excitement of their leader, and fluidly exchange their ideas and concerns.

Summary

Perhaps it would be wise to step away from the PC occasionally to engage in the time-honored tradition of face-to-face conversation. You may find the effort to curtail your e-mail to be rewarding. Best of luck :-)

To read Diane Brady’s entire article, *!#@ the E-mail, Can We Talk?, go to: http://www.businessweek.com/

In Know-How, bestselling author Ram Charan slices through the façade of apparent leadership ability by unearthing eight skills, or know-hows, of truly effective leadership. According to Charan, these know-hows distinguish performers from pretenders.

Drawing upon his experience as a leadership advisor, Charan offers reasoned analysis of corporate decision-making and up-close observation of prominent executive leaders. Keen global awareness and a talent for simplifying complexity allow him to drill down to the essence of productive leadership.

From the man who co-authored, Execution, perhaps it comes as no surprise that Ram Charan writes with an eye on results. Rather than high-flown and untested ideals, Know-How gives sensible, down-to-earth guidance. Charan’s seasoned business perspective enables him to boil down a wide scope of leadership issues into simple, straightforward advice. An astute observer of the corporate landscape, Charan educates the reader with salient examples from today’s marketplace such as the uphill battle waged by GM against foreign competitors, the tussle between Target and Wal-Mart, and the pressure Google has placed on publications.

Unfortunately, Charan’s wisdom is shrouded by a slightly mechanical style of writing, which suffers from an overabundance of business buzzwords. Stale terms, such as “cognitive bandwidth,” “collaboration,” and “granularity,” cycle through the text and account for the book’s sluggish pace. A wealth of insight gives the book force, but drags along in the absence of vivid text.

Nonetheless, Know-How does abound with practical advice. LW subscribers would be wise to dig into Chapter 2 to study repositioning and to explore Chapter 3 on reading the external environment. Both chapters describe indispensable skills for leaders responding to the ever-evolving world of declining product life cycles, global competition, and technological upheaval. Although Chapters 7 and 8 have no novel material, Charan’s penchant for application reminds the leader of the vital nature of clear-cut goals and established priorities. Chapter 9 is a remarkably well-written appeal for executive leaders to heed the court of public opinion in such matters as the environment or labor practices.

While the lessons of Know-How hold true for any leader, its appeal will likely be greatest among executives. Having worked extensively with CEO’s, Charan views leadership from the perch of leadership’s upper echelon. His brilliant strategic thought and big-picture focus best address the needs of the seasoned, corporate leader.

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid.”
~ Franklin P. Jones

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.”
~ Billy Graham

For more information on Dr. John C. Maxwell, please visit our website by clicking here. In our effort to become your new content provider, portions of Leadership Wired are often written by editors other than John C. Maxwell and do not necessarily reflect his opinions.

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