Posted on April 18, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
“Everything we now currently hold on to was the product of past change.”
It is easy to forget where the current “status quo” came from. No matter how comfortable, and even necessary, an existing arrangement of things feel today - it was once new, untried, and distinctly uncomfortable.
** Change is how we got where we are, and change is how we will continue to move forward.
Even though change is a constant and an inevitable part of every day life, the challenge surrounding leading change is that it can’t be approached as some pragmatic “engineering” problem. Change involves people – and thus a change process will call up all types of emotions, uncertainties, and inconsistencies in those being affected. Therefore, choosing to simply “managing change” is insufficient. Successful change requires wise and thoughtful leaders who carefully help their people first process, and then actively enter into, the journey of any prescribed change.
One way they do this is by helping followers answer 6 basic questions
:
1) What is specifically changing for me?
2) Why is it changing?
3) How will I be impacted?
4) What’s in it for me?
5) What do you need me to do?
6) How will I get the knowledge, skills, and needed information that will be required of me?
When a leader takes the time to clarify for their people the specific answers to these 6 questions, the process of change (though not easy) will flow much easier for everyone involved.
Challenge
: Every leader (worth his/her salt) is overseeing some type of change process. How well have you answered these 6 questions for your people?
Oh… one final thought: “Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.” ~ Robert C. Gallagher
Posted on April 14, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
You know you are not leading. . .
1. When you find yourself waiting for someone else to do something, rather than taking the initiative yourself
2. When you spend too much time talking about how things should be different
3. When you blame your company, surroundings, or other people for your current situation
4. When you choose not to speak the truth… and speak it in love
5. When you are more concerned about being liked, or accepted, than doing what is right
6. When you seek consensus, rather than stepping forward to communicate your own vision of the future
7. When you are not taking any significant risks
8. When you accept the status quo
9. When you protect your reputation instead of opening yourself up to possible opposition or conflict
10. When you procrastinate making the right decision
11. When you talk to those around you about an issue - rather than talking to the individual who is responsible
12. When you don’t feel your life is being spent on anything significant
13. When you believe your opinion doesn’t really matter
14. When you wait to act because you are seeking the opinion of too many people
To lead means you are willing to move away from your comfort zone – and take the position out front. Where you are willing to take a risk, push to the edge, and courageously step out.
Leadership is not a matter of position – it is a choice you make throughout the day in various ways, and in various settings.
** What percentage of your time do you spend out front? What percentage of your time is spent outside your comfort zone?
Posted on April 09, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
It’s a lonely road for those who set out to be their best, for many people prefer the path of comfort – a path is very appealing because it is paved with safe lives, status quo expectations, and little chance of failure.
But if you want something bad enough - and are willing to make changes in your life to cause it to happen - you can take over the world… at least your world. Yes, this is possible. But as you journey out, you will need to continually fight your limiting assumptions, comfort zone, and the temptation to remain average.
Consider the following ways you can remain unremarkably average, and thereby never reach your true potential and identity:
1. Accept what others tell you at face value
2. Don’t question authority or existing structures
3. Go to college because you’re supposed to, not because you want to equip yourself for a unique future
4. Go overseas once or twice in your life, to somewhere safe like England
5. Don’t try to learn another language; everyone else will eventually learn English
6. Think about starting your own business, but never do it
7. Think about writing a book, but never do it
8. Get the largest mortgage you qualify for and spend 30 years paying for it
9. Sit at a desk 40 hours a week for an average of 10 hours of productive work
10. Don’t stand out or draw attention to yourself
11. Jump through hoops. Check off boxes. Get permission
** How many in the above list describe you?
Posted on April 03, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” is one of the greatest books of our time. Psychiatrist Victor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with descriptions of his time in various Nazi death camps during World War II – with lessons for spiritual survival. In the book, Victor wanted to convey, by way of a concrete example, that life holds a potential for meaning under any condition, even the most miserable one.
Our quest for meaning in life will inevitably lead us into a serious of courageous choices. In the preface of the book, Victor tells about a courageous choice he was led to make:
“Someone may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer with the following true story: Shortly before the United States entered World War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa to the United States. My old parents were overjoyed because they expected that I would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however. The question beset me: Could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, “logotherapy”, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books on this theory? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and could not arrive at a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for “a hint from Heaven,” as the phrase goes.
“It was then I noticed a piece of marble laying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the TEN COMMANDMENTS were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, “Which one?” He answered, “Honor thy father and they mother that thy days may be long upon the land.” At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse.”
Victor E. Frankl
Vienna, 1992
** What Courageous Choice Do You Need To Make?
Posted on March 30, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
The most compelling leaders are those who are finding ways to fully express who they are and what they believe. Leadership guru Warren Bennis, who understood leadership as self-expression, made the following observation…
“No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become leaders. So the point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, to use yourself completely – all your skills, gifts and energies – in order to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing. You, must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and to enjoy the process of becoming.”
To be a credible and authentic leader, you must learn to express yourself in your own unique way. This means you cannot lead by copying others. You cannot lead by copying the actions, beliefs, values and vision of somebody else. - People do not follow leadership techniques, tools, tricks and tactics, they follow people who know who they are - and who have the courage to expresses themselves authentically.
In fact, the majority of those we would classify as great leaders, never set out to become a “great leader.”
“If you study the people who participate in dynamic leadership relationships, you will find the majority of them never set out to be great leaders. Rather, they set out to pursue a purpose, a cause, or a calling that was worthy of giving it everything they had – in some cases, even their lives! Their power is the power of purpose. Whether it’s chasing an exciting new opportunity or fighting injustice, their belief in the cause gives them the strength to persevere when they come up against insurmountable odds. In their efforts to build relationships and rally people around the cause, they naturally start to engage in the act of leadership.” - Kevin Freibergand and Jackie Freiberg
• Have you clearly articulated your vision and purpose?
• What is the cause that compels you the most?
• Is that cause something worth giving your life for? - If so… then go out and do it!
Posted on March 26, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
There are some games in which cheering for the other side feels better than winning.
They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas. It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.
Did you hear that? The other team’s fans? They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.
It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.
“I never in my life thought I’d hear people cheering for us to hit their kids,” recalls Gainesville’s QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. “I wouldn’t expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!”
And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he’d just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.
But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That’s because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.
This all started when Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.
So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send:” Hogan wrote. “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”
Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan’s office and asked, “Coach, why are we doing this?”
Continue Reading...
Posted on March 21, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
"Charisma matters more than it used to; when you had command-and-control environments, everyone knew his role and executed his bos's program. Today, if you're not able to galvanize people into action, all the thinking, the analysis, the strategic prioritizing doesn't matter at all." - Sears CEO Arthur Martinez.
There are some leaders who just seem to have it… to have charisma, or the ability to attract others to their cause.
In my opinion, I find
Tony Blair articulate, inspirational, poised, authoritative, and influential. From what I understand of former President of South Africa,
Nelson Mandela, he was a walking magnet who attracted people to himself and his cause… Other leaders who come to my mind are (were)
Jesus Christ, Ronald Reagan, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, George Patton, Steve Jobs, Gandhi, Pope John Paul, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Mother Teresa.
It is a fact that charismatic leaders influence more people, make more sales, are asked to serve on committees, are promoted quicker, invited to give more speeches… than mundane leaders.
Being charismatic is part of being an effective leader, especially when the key functions of a particular leader are quite public in nature
(government, ministry, head coach…)
** Max Depree wrote “Leadership is an art” and is the result of acquired skills. We can enhance our charisma, or attractiveness to others – and here are some practical steps to help you do that:
1) Look and listen to yourself – Record your public speaking. Practice in a mirror or video tape yourself and study yourself speaking. This is the best way to deal with public speaking blind spots.
2) Get out of your comfort zone – Practice being more charismatic with complete strangers – with people who do not have a clue to who you are, and then observe their reaction.
3) Expand your intellectual horizons and vocabulary – by having an advanced awareness of the world around you, you become more interesting to people. Keep up with current affairs so you can meaningfully contribute to conversations.
4) Take the time to make others feel important – Charismatic leaders make time for others. One of the best ways to do this is to practice good listening skills. People love to be listened to – and love the listener.
5) Exert your energies towards solutions and positive remarks – That is what charisma is all about.
6) Become a comfortable public speaker – Doing so will enhance your ability to influence others, share ideas, entertain, welcome, inform, and inspire others in both formal and informal settings.
7) Raise your personal standard of appearance – Watch your personal dress code and hygiene.
8) Desire to be the role model who others want to emulate – People are tired of phonies. Charisma that is coupled with a strong character goes a long way.
Posted on March 18, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
“There are three rules for creating good leaders. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” - W. Somerset Maugham
There are no perfect leaders – and that is why “good” leaders are always seeking to improve themselves through various methods, such as self-study, formal training and education, mentoring, soliciting feedback, and actively learning from mistakes.
And since there are no perfect leaders out there to use as an example, researchers have found it very difficult to build a completely comprehensive model of exemplary leadership – resulting in many different models being postulated. Yet despite the array of ideas out there – common themes
do
exist regarding what skills/attributes make for a good leader.
**
These include
:
• The ability to formulate and articulate a
compelling vision
for the future that energizes their organization - a clear picture of where they believe their organization should should go in the future.
• The ability to communicate and encourage followers to
align
their work toward that vision (while also helping their organization undergo whatever changes are required to achieve that vision).
• A
love of self-improvement
, both for themselves and their followers. Their belief in continual improvement tends to make them effective coaches and mentors.
• The ability to
provide
the necessary resources, and then freely
empower
their followers to actively “get things done.” (They understand the art of delegating to the right people.)
** Based on an interview with Donald Clark.
Posted on March 13, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center, was standing in Sherman Auditorium the other day, before some of the very people whom he might soon need to lay off.
In the days before the meeting, Levy had been walking around the hospital, noticing little things. He stood at the nurses’ stations, watching the transporters, the people who push the patients around in wheelchairs. He saw them talk to the patients, put them at ease, make them laugh. He saw that the people who push the wheelchairs were practicing medicine. He noticed the same when he poked his head into the rooms and watched as the people who deliver the food chatted up the patients and their families.
He watched the people who polish the corridors, who strip the sheets, who empty the trash cans, and he realized that a lot of them are immigrants, many of them had second jobs, most of them were just scraping by.
And so Paul Levy had all this bouncing around his brain when he stood in Sherman Auditorium. He looked out into a sea of people and recognized faces: technicians, secretaries, administrators, therapists, nurses, the people who are the heart and soul of any hospital. People who knew that Beth Israel had hired about a quarter of its 8,000 staff over the last six years and that the chances that they could all keep their jobs and benefits in an economy in freefall ranged between slim and none.
“I want to run an idea by you that I think is important, and I’d like to get your reaction to it,” Levy began. “I’d like to do what we can to protect the lower-wage earners - the transporters, the housekeepers, the food service people. A lot of these people work really hard, and I don’t want to put an additional burden on them.”
“Now, if we protect these workers, it means the rest of us will have to make a bigger sacrifice,” he continued. “It means that others will have to give up more of their salary or benefits.” He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when Sherman Auditorium erupted in applause. Thunderous, heartfelt, sustained applause.
Paul Levy stood there and felt the sheer power of it all rush over him, like a wave. His eyes welled and his throat tightened so much that he didn’t think he could go on.
When the applause subsided, he did go on, telling the workers at Beth Israel, the people who make a hospital go, that he wanted their ideas.
The lump had barely left his throat when Paul Levy started getting e-mails. The consensus was that the workers don’t want anyone to get laid off and are willing to give up pay and benefits to make sure no one does. A nurse said her floor voted unanimously to forgo a 3 percent raise. A guy in finance who got laid off from his last job at a hospital in Rhode Island suggested working one less day a week. Another nurse said she was willing to give up some vacation and sick time. A respiratory therapist suggested eliminating bonuses.
“I’m getting about a hundred messages per hour,” Levy said yesterday, shaking his head.
Paul Levy is onto something. People are worried about the next paycheck, and a lot of them realize that everybody’s in the same boat, and that their boat doesn’t rise because someone else’s sinks.
** Paul Levy is trying something revolutionary and radical. He is trying to convince the people who work for him that the E in CEO can sometimes stand for empathy.
Posted on March 09, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.
“Persistence is having the same goal over and over.” - Seth Godin
Anything worth achieving in life requires constant effort. Just having a meaningful goal is not enough, we need to continuously take action toward that goal.
Persistence is necessary because our meaningful goals will not come to us easy. There will be days when we will feel like giving up, days when it seems we are not making any progress. It is during times like this, that sheer determination and persistence is all that we have left. That is why persistence is the personal trait that separates many successful people from those who never quite reach their potential and dreams.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge
To reach any meaningful goal will require gutsy persistence. It will be our persistence that keeps us moving forward, into the unknown - but toward what we know in our heart is a worthy ambition.
“If Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him. No one would have remembered him either.” – Unknown
In the face of challenge, persistence beckons us to continue taking action towards the goals and dreams that are waiting to be realized.
“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance.” - H. Jackson Brown
