Leadership and Learning

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How many great leaders accomplished their visions on their own? Was Apple’s iPod envisioned, designed, built, managed, delivered, and serviced all by one person?  Obviously, the answer is, “no.”  It takes an entire team of individuals, each at their own level of the organization, to ensure the dream of the iPod is realized each and every day with customers across the planet.  It also takes a leader like Steve Jobs to paint the picture…to sell the vision…to ensure that individuals throughout the organization embody the very spirit of engagement the iPod itself is meant to create.     

What I wonder is, “How do leaders who don’t engage others believe their visions will be fully realized?”  Leaders who don’t explicitly extrovert and communicate their vision likely won’t create the buy-in and commitment they need to execute it.  Leaders must engage the hearts and minds of others in order to fully achieve the potential of their ideas.  

A few questions to consider:

• When was the last time you share, or re-shared, your vision as a leader? 
• If you had to rate their level of understanding of your vision on a scale of 1-10, what would it be?  What would they rate their understanding of your vision?
• What can you do today to foster a better understanding of your vision? 

As a leader at any level of an organization, never forget there are a great number of people who help you accomplish your vision.  Every day is a chance to revisit that vision with them.

Every organization has opportunities to innovate – either incrementally or via leaps and bounds – in order to better serve its customers.   

What would happen if for one day you led a group of your colleagues to create a radical haven of innovation?  What would happen if you commandeered a conference room, posted a dozen large flip charts on the wall, and for two hours collectively asked:

• What would it look like to be amazing at what we do?
• What can we make incremental progress on today that moves us towards amazing?
• If we were operating at our leadership potential, how might things be different? 
• How can each of us, in our own ways, lead an innovative step towards our goals?

Each and every day presents an opportunity for leaders at every level of the organization to create a radical haven of innovation. 

What are you going to do to lead the effort in your organization?

As someone who watched many hours of the Olympics, I noticed an underlying, yet present connection between my work in the field of leadership and those Olympians on television.  Leadership was being demonstrated everywhere!

Individuals from all over the world demonstrated the self-perseverance and determination required to be a participant in their sport, yet practically every one was humble about their own accomplishments, gracious towards their fellow athletes, had a deep appreciation for others’ while still in competition, and carried on, even sometimes after crashing hard.  Self-driven and tenacious yet compassionate and committed to others, all with an eye toward the greater good of their respective sport…these athletes were demonstrating the core tenants of effective self-leadership. 

It makes me wonder, can every leader lead like an Olympian?  Can every leader give it his or her best while still maintaining a sense of camaraderie and an eye towards the mission of his or her organization?  I believe so.  My question to you is, “Are you ready to earn your medal…in effective self-leadership?”

It takes a lot of courage to lead.  It takes courage to step up to the challenge.  It takes
courage to stand in front of others and ask them to follow.  It takes courage to push or
pull others along a path that is anything but familiar or comfortable at times. 

The reason is takes courage to lead is that because leadership inherently involves risk. 
There is a risk that your activities won’t lead to outcomes…that your ideas will fail in
comparison to the promise you offered…and others won’t appreciate or even like you as
a leader.   

At the same time, the practice of leadership offers rewards.  Leaders can bring people and
their ideas together to create synergy.  Leaders build trust and foster engagement. 
Leaders experience the joy of seeing success via individuals, groups, and organizations.   

Make no mistake about it:  It takes courage to lead.  The questions for you are, where is
your courage, and when will you step up to lead?

Keep the change.  No, it’s not just what people say when they get your morning coffee
from the local barista.  It’s something that’s said every day within organizations.  It is the
all-too-common employee revolt against changing the status quo. 

If you are a leader, then you need to understand change from the eyes of an employee. 
To not try to understand change through others’ perspectives is like trying to give
directions to someone to a restaurant that you’ve never actually been to. 

Atticus Finch, a character in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, said “If you can learn a
simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really
understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb
inside of his skin and walk around in it.” 

As a leader, when was the last time you took the time to look at an organizational change
you were promoting through the eyes of someone other than yourself?