Catching Negativity

Communication is central to our relationships and thus to our community.

How we speak to one another is the key to strong bonds and fundamentally to leadership.  Everyone has the power to be a leader and that leadership can lead people toward the good or toward the bad.  Rhetoric is the tool to take people there.

In Mark Wiskup’s The “It” Factor he argues that when we open our mouths our goal is “to make something new happen, to shake things up – in a big way, a small way, or a medium way.”  “All talking is about change.”

The big question is: Am I aware of the effect my speech will have?

Leaders need to be continuously aware of the impact of their words.  When you speak, speak with intentionality.  There is NO SUCH THING as a casual conversation.  Within the context of your organization, you are always the leader.  Sure it’s a pain to constantly inquire “what will this person take from this conversation?” but it is an important consideration.

People using their speech for negativity need to be sent out of the group, separated from the people they could influence.  It’s not enough to try to keep people away.  People will seek them out.  You must be quarantined away from all.  That is how contagious negativity can be.

Everyone should be thinking about what we say, to whom, and perhaps most importantly how we say it.  There are great resources out there to work on our communication, such as The IT Factor, How To Talk So Your Kids Will Listen series, Fierce Conversations, or to get a conversation started at work, try the youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4LNYH_5III&feature=related.

Don't Be A Slave to Focus Groups: Be the Decisor

This is the first of a series based upon the article The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

Steve Jobs is one of the most intriguing and controversial leaders of our time.  His name comes up frequently in classes I teach – sometimes in reference to his almost prophetic ability to revolutionize industry and many times as an example of a tough boss.  To many, defining Jobs after his death is the critical argument.  To me, who is the real Steve Jobs is less interesting than the leadership lessons Isaacson gleaned from his interactions with Jobs.  We can all learn from these lessons and begin to apply them to our own work.  Over the next several months I hope to tackle all 14 in thinking about how they can apply to all leaders and especially non-profit work.

Don’t Be a Slave to Focus Groups

“Caring deeply about what customers want is much different from continually asking them what they want; it requires intuition and instinct about desires that have not yet formed.”

I am a huge proponent of research and data gathering.  Everything in an organization should be measured.  Yet data is a tool with which to make great decisions.  The human brain has an incredible capacity to sort and analyze data.  After taking in a myriad of data points, we can decide on a course of action. As the Heath brothers point out in Switch, it's the elephant, not the rider that decides on the direction.  It is not our rational side that is the decider, but rather the emotional side.   That’s where instinct and intuition come to play.

What does this mean for our organizations?  Many times we try to rule by committee.  Somehow we believe that in the service sector different rules apply.  No one should “be in charge”, but the decisions should reflect the “community view.”  This is a recipe for organizations that move at the pace of molasses and are constantly behind – not in an I’m not out in front of the pack way, but in a why are you still doing it that way way.  Most people cannot articulate the “desires they have not yet formed.”  And non-profit organizations are notoriously slow at change.  This is okay and has many benefits, but it means that knowing where you need to go has to be done EARLIER than other, more nimble organizations, not later.  Some leaders can see things coming – they feel the desires still unformed.  It is those visionary leaders we need to be listening to.  Let them take in the data points and tell us where they are headed.  It is similar to chess masters.  We could all plod along making isolated moves on a chess board.  Some of us can even think three steps ahead.  But Masters see the whole picture play out in front of them.  They instinctively know (after much data and practice) what will happen twenty moves from now.  Talented visionaries have that ability – to see farther into the future than the rest of us.

I am not minimizing committee involvement or the community representation in organizations – these are vital functions that make up all the data points from which to make decisions.  But at the end of the day, good decisions are made from a lonely place—that of the leader.

Dangers of Servant Leaders

I love the “aha” moment that happens in class when leaders are introduced to the Servant Leader.  In Robert Greenspan’s seminal book, Servant Leadership, he defines a leader as someone who “leads from behind,” who puts others in front and is the caring and nurturing presence from behind that always has the organization as her first priority.  Somehow it touches the truth of what it means to lead, and you can see participants soaking it in and integrating the concept into their experiences.  It is powerful.  But it also comes with a danger warning.

Leading from behind can cause you to fall too far back --  to lollygag, rather than to lead.

In today’s New York Times, Paul Wolfowitz takes Hillary Clinton and the administration to task for ‘leading from behind’ in the Middle East.  Mr. Wolfowitz, former deputy secretary of defense, maintains that the state department has let others set the agenda and provide the means, taking a role of supporter, rather than provider. 

Biblical leaders are almost all shepherds.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David – they were all shepherds while, or in David’s case – before, they were leaders of a nation.  Even Moses, who should have had every qualification with his training as a Prince of Egypt, had to spend time as a shepherd before taking on the mantle of leadership.  What is so vital about a shepherd’s training?  Shepherds must lead their sheep from behind.  Sheep never follow the one in front.  So we learn that leaders are gatherers and caretakers, looking out for the stray, and keeping the group moving with gentle prods.

What we need to remember is that even when you are “leading from behind” – you have to be leading!

You are still a servant leader.  Sometimes the temptation is great to rest from leading.  We are tired from the risks that come with it.  Or we just want to focus on what’s in front of us, not have to project consequences down the line.

That’s when we can start to lollygag.

As Wolfowitz puts it “Policy makers should never underestimate the risks of action in the face of any conflict, but neither should they underestimate the risks of inaction.”  Absence of leadership can be dangerous. 

We not only want to, but must respond to people’s needs. 

And we need to respond from a place if leadership – hear the needs, feel the needs and meet them – take action to provide for the needs.  That’s the shepherd.  He doesn’t wait for the sheep to find water.  She doesn’t assume someone else will send the stray sheep back.  The shepherd might be in the back, but there is no question who is the one with the staff.