THE TABLE STAKES FOR GREAT LEADERSHIP
THE TABLE STAKES FOR GREAT LEADERSHIP
Leadership is the “death valley” for many organizations and even more careers. What are some of the problems?
• The belief that people are leaders because they have formal authority
• The notion that people are leaders because they’re running a large business (or their own business)
• The assumption of a close correlation between currently acceptable business results and good leadership (even idiots can have their day)
• Teaching people to be managers and expecting them to be leaders
• Being fuzzy-headed about the most basic of questions, like “What exactly is leadership?”
Over several decades of working with leaders who ranged from magnificent to wretched, we have observed some common attitudes and actions that make up a “great leader” mindset. This set is very different than the typical “leaders are smart, focused, energetic, etc.” laundry lists. Truly exceptional leaders:
Know what leadership is – Great leaders know the difference – the total difference – between leadership and management. They know that we should lead people and manage things (and lead the people in such a way that they will help us manage the things). The four “classic” functions of management are planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. These are great and terrible things. They are great when they are applied to inanimate objects like projects, but terrible when they are applied to people. I have yet to meet the project that didn’t need to be controlled, or the person who would let you control them.
Lead from the heart – They know that people are more likely to follow someone who is passionate and smart than someone who is merely smart. While researching my book The Passionate Organization, I was impressed by the high percentage of outstanding leaders who know that it is never heart in lieu of head, but it is always heart in front of head.
Understand the power of commitment – They know the value of mutual commitment. They don’t ask people to make a bigger commitment than they are willing to make in return. They lose cheap talk about “loyalty” and build two-way pledges now. They don’t watch a city grow in response to their growth and then move their company or headquarters to another city.
Are friends of truth and enemies of magical thinking – They push their organizations to face, define, align with, and (where possible) change internal and external realities. They don’t make excuses (“As soon as the economy…”), and they don’t wait for saving events (“There’s nothing wrong with us that _______ wouldn’t fix”).
They leverage the power of paradox – Great leaders understand intuitively that the world is a whole lot more “both/and” than it is “either/or.” Do they take more risks or eliminate risk? Do they live in the present or live in the future? Do they benchmark competitors or ignore them? Yes, and yes, and yes.
Act as designers – They think of themselves as organizational designers rather than tinkering mechanics. They know if they get the design right, the results will follow.
Free the masses – They focus on creating an environment to optimize the actions of the 95% who would like their work lives to count for something, rather than to restrict the actions of the 5% who just don’t care.
Have a people-first mindset that maximizes talent – They replace unproductive views of people (“resources”) with a view that spurs individual investment. They are adept at attracting, retaining, and maximizing the number and performance of their “winners and believers”
Share power – They treat power as a tool not a goal. They use it to liberate rather than to dominate.
Change the talk – They always change the nature of the conversation. By the things they talk about, they things they don’t talk about, and the questions they ask, they use the power of words to change the way the organization thinks.
There you have it – the “Tremendous Ten” actions of the best of the best. The great ones do them, the average ones don’t even understand them, and the poor ones scoff at them. We may use other means to get decent results in the short term. They can make us money.
But they can’t make us great.
THE TABLE STAKES FOR GREAT LEADERSHIP - To learn more about this author, visit James R. Lucas's Website.
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It was said about one leader, “His people would follow him anywhere – but only out of a sense of morbid curiosity.” Many people lead in the sense that a hood ornament “leads” the car – while it is out in front, it doesn’t have much to do with actually guiding the car.
Leadership is the “death valley” for many organizations and even more careers. What are some of the problems?
• The belief that people are leaders because they have formal authority
• The notion that people are leaders because they’re running a large business (or their own business)
• The assumption of a close correlation between currently acceptable business results and good leadership (even idiots can have their day)
• Teaching people to be managers and expecting them to be leaders
• Being fuzzy-headed about the most basic of questions, like “What exactly is leadership?”
Over several decades of working with leaders who ranged from magnificent to wretched, we have observed some common attitudes and actions that make up a “great leader” mindset. This set is very different than the typical “leaders are smart, focused, energetic, etc.” laundry lists. Truly exceptional leaders:
Know what leadership is – Great leaders know the difference – the total difference – between leadership and management. They know that we should lead people and manage things (and lead the people in such a way that they will help us manage the things). The four “classic” functions of management are planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. These are great and terrible things. They are great when they are applied to inanimate objects like projects, but terrible when they are applied to people. I have yet to meet the project that didn’t need to be controlled, or the person who would let you control them.
Lead from the heart – They know that people are more likely to follow someone who is passionate and smart than someone who is merely smart. While researching my book The Passionate Organization, I was impressed by the high percentage of outstanding leaders who know that it is never heart in lieu of head, but it is always heart in front of head.
Understand the power of commitment – They know the value of mutual commitment. They don’t ask people to make a bigger commitment than they are willing to make in return. They lose cheap talk about “loyalty” and build two-way pledges now. They don’t watch a city grow in response to their growth and then move their company or headquarters to another city.
Are friends of truth and enemies of magical thinking – They push their organizations to face, define, align with, and (where possible) change internal and external realities. They don’t make excuses (“As soon as the economy…”), and they don’t wait for saving events (“There’s nothing wrong with us that _______ wouldn’t fix”).
They leverage the power of paradox – Great leaders understand intuitively that the world is a whole lot more “both/and” than it is “either/or.” Do they take more risks or eliminate risk? Do they live in the present or live in the future? Do they benchmark competitors or ignore them? Yes, and yes, and yes.
Act as designers – They think of themselves as organizational designers rather than tinkering mechanics. They know if they get the design right, the results will follow.
Free the masses – They focus on creating an environment to optimize the actions of the 95% who would like their work lives to count for something, rather than to restrict the actions of the 5% who just don’t care.
Have a people-first mindset that maximizes talent – They replace unproductive views of people (“resources”) with a view that spurs individual investment. They are adept at attracting, retaining, and maximizing the number and performance of their “winners and believers”
Share power – They treat power as a tool not a goal. They use it to liberate rather than to dominate.
Change the talk – They always change the nature of the conversation. By the things they talk about, they things they don’t talk about, and the questions they ask, they use the power of words to change the way the organization thinks.
There you have it – the “Tremendous Ten” actions of the best of the best. The great ones do them, the average ones don’t even understand them, and the poor ones scoff at them. We may use other means to get decent results in the short term. They can make us money.
But they can’t make us great.
THE TABLE STAKES FOR GREAT LEADERSHIP - To learn more about this author, visit James R. Lucas's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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