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Servant-Leadership

“Free-will” Doesn’t Exist

by Ron Potter June 15, 2017

This was a statement recently posted by Benjamin Hardy.

I didn’t agree. I believe in free-will, not predestination. People who take a very dependent approach to life don’t believe in free-will. They don’t believe their efforts can make a difference. They feel helpless because others will overrule them. They live a very sad life. Exercise your free-will. You’ll be happier!

But, as I read further I began to see what he was saying. There is a price to pay for the choices you make. That I agree with. There is always a price to pay. Even when you choose not to choose, there is a price to pay.

Time to Pay the Piper

Often the price to pay is some pain and suffering. If you’ve read many of my posts you’ve noticed my reference to Dr. Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled. He explains that the root of mental illness is the avoidance of pain and suffering. Choosing not to pay the price at the moment (pain and suffering) will lead to some form of mental illness. The word that comes to mind most often is dysfunctional. We have a very dysfunctional team, company, environment… fill in the blank.

Dysfunction Junction

Why is it dysfunctional? Did someone decide there should be a dysfunctional team? Was that the desire, to work in a dysfunctional environment? Not consciously, but somewhere, the decision was made not to deal with a difficult issue. Therefore, with the decision made to avoid the pain and suffering in the moment, the consequence is a dysfunctional environment.

Time is a big cost issue when it comes to decisions.

Do I decide to help my employee learn a new process or take less time and do it myself?
Consequence: You will always need to do it yourself.

Do I decide to get the team on board before moving ahead or let them know the direction we will take?
Consequence: No buy-in. No engagement. Failed decision.

Do I decide to take the time for good deliberation or make a quick decision?
Consequence: People don’t believe in the decision and will continuing to support other directions.

Developing employees, getting buy-in, facing the dilemma of decisions all take time. Not paying the cost of time in the moment causes negative results. But those negative results may not become evident immediately. Later there is no visible cause and effect. People will say “It’s just dysfunctional.” No, that was the consequence of a decision you made.

There is no free-will. Every choice has a cost. And a consequence.

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Absurd!Blog In-Depth Book Reviews

Absurd!: There are No Leaders, There is Only Leadership

by Ron Potter March 27, 2017

As we approach the end of Farson’s book, it really gets meaty as he begins to speak very directly about leadership. He starts this section by saying “One of the great enemies of organizational effectiveness is our stereotypical image of a leader. We imagine a commanding figure perhaps standing in front of an audience, talking, not listening, with an entourage of assistants standing by. The real strength of a leader is the ability to elicit the strength of the group. Leadership is less the property of a person than the property of a group.”

Organization effectiveness depends on trusting and well function teams. True leaders build great teams. The name of my company is Team Leadership Culture. The order is important. Companies with the stereotypical commanding figure leader don’t often sustain their results. Companies with leaders who build great teams have much greater sustained results. Teams first. But, it takes great team-building leadership to create the teams. Farson reinforces this concept by saying “True leaders are defined by the groups they are serving, and they understand the job as being interdependent with the group. They define their task as evoking the knowledge, skills, and creativity of those who are already with the organization.”

There is so much richness in this section that I can’t possibly cover it in this short blog. I started this series about Management of the Absurd because I thought it was a wonderful little book that was worth the attention. I’ll encourage you to go beyond my blogs and pick up a copy for yourself. It’s worth making the effort.

Farson closes this section with some statements that are near and dear to my heart. “The best leaders are servants of their people. Studies show that those people who are most successful in achieving power did not dominate the group; rather they served it. Humility comes naturally to the best leaders. They seldom take credit themselves but instead give credit to the group with which they have worked. They characteristically make life easier for their employees. They are constantly arranging situations, engineering jobs, smoothing out the processes, removing the barriers. They think about who needs what. They define their job as finding ways of releasing the creative potential that exists within each individual employee and in each group with which they work.”

If you’ve read my book on Leadership Trust Me you’ll know that the first attribute is humility. Farson says that humility comes naturally to the best leaders. I’ll say that the best leaders learn how to keep their ego in check and rely on that natural humility that is sometimes buried deep inside. The world tells us to promote our ego, build your brand, take charge. Humility trumps all those approaches if your desire is to be a great leader.

There are no leaders, only leadership.

I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year. The title is Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blogs about ABSURD! I think it will put each new one in great context.

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Blog Trust Me

Who is Controlling This Thing?

by Ron Potter March 20, 2017

Here’s a challenge: On a scale of 1 to 5, rate your need for control in various situations.

Overcontrol diminishes trust. Control-freak leaders have a hard time building truly great teams. Their lack of trust in subordinates hamstrings creativity and superior performance. Conversely, a humble leader, who is not too full of self, has the capacity and good sense to allow others to sparkle and make a difference.

A humble leader steps aside so that others can run by and seize the prize of their own greatness. But just how is this done? Here’s an overview:

Assume the best of others

Leaders who expect the best of others exert a powerful influence. Many times leaders get caught in the trap of judging others. They measure, categorize, and classify people and the jobs they perform. Ken Blanchard likes to talk about “catching people doing things right.” This idea puts the emphasis on solid behavior and good intentions. It forces managers to assume and reward the best. It helps leaders not make rigid rules that hold down employees who want to soar.

Learn to listen

Being quick to listen implies the leader is not distracted but is actively hearing what the other person is saying. A humble leader listens with the intent of understanding rather than responding. Listening with the intent to understand triggers curious questions that help both the listener and speaker grow in their thinking and improve their conclusions.

Reward honest communication

How do you react when someone tells you bad news? Does the messenger become a target for your arrows? We know a man who confronted his boss over a matter that had the potential to really upset the company’s applecart. Instead of shooting the messenger, the supervisor commended the truth-bearer for his straightforward approach and creativity. He was able to look past the message to the employee’s intentions. The boss agreed with his employee in significant ways and changed his perspective. He rewarded open communication, and the company was better off because of it.

Admit your mistakes

Humble, open leaders show vulnerability. And nothing demonstrates vulnerability quite like admitting mistakes. “I was wrong” is difficult to say, but it is one of the most freeing and powerful statements a leader can make. Admitting your mistakes allows others on the team to relax and admit their mistakes. It allows the team to breathe and grow. Admission of wrong, seeking and granting forgiveness, and moving on are powerful tools of a humble leader.

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Blog Trust Me

Seeking Humility

by Ron Potter March 6, 2017

What in your life do you need to let go of so you can become more humble?

Being humble and teachable means learning to trust others and their opinions and instincts. It means listening with the intent of learning instead of simply responding. It means seeking personal development from every situation, experience (both good and bad), and transaction.

Humility is the first pillar of a leader whom others will trust.

I know it may not make much sense, but humility is a prominent characteristic of truly great leaders. A humble person sticks to the basics and is not prone to exaggeration. How much better off would we be today if the leaders of some of our fallen corporate behemoths had kept their heads out of the ozone and their feet on the ground?

Perhaps the most significant quality of humble leaders is their steady, clear-eyed perception of truth. A proud leader is prone to spreading and believing exaggerations—from little white lies to whopping falsehoods. Which high-powered modern leaders, intent on vanquishing foes and surmounting tall challenges, ever want to be known as humble? Not many—until, of course, they find out, as we intend to demonstrate, that humility is a critical first step on the path that leads to leadership success.

Humble leaders take a different approach. They are not so self-absorbed as to think that they don’t need to listen and be open. Their spirits are not critical because they are always open and scanning their employees, customers, and systems for new and better ideas.

Humble leaders know that they cannot control people or circumstances. The irony is that the more they loosen their grip, the more they gain. The more flexibility—rather than control—that they can build into themselves, the more they succeed.

A humble leader welcomes change. Change often equals growth. But not change for the sake of change. A humble leader needs to discern the right change, a skill that is developed by being open and teachable.

So I pose my question once again: What in your life do you need to let go of so you can become more humble?

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Short Book Reviews

The Law

by Ron Potter January 3, 2017

Ron’s Short Review: The Law was originally published in French in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat. It was written two years after the third French Revolution of 1848. Great study in what Bastia calls “Plunder” both illegal and legal. I believe his words can be applied to any form of artificial structure, be it government or corporations. Lots of lessons to be learned.

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Blog Leadership

The two pillars of great leadership

by Ron Potter November 28, 2016

The temptation in leadership will always be to head toward the dominant preferences inside us and on every side in our environment.
Over the last several years, investors suddenly began looking for CEOs who could shake things up and put an end to what was perceived as a business-as-usual approach. A new breed of corporate leader emerged: the charismatic CEO. A fervent and often irrational faith in the power of dynamic leaders became part of our culture.
Rakesh Khurana writes,

Faith is an invaluable, even indispensable gift in human affairs.… In the sphere of business, the faith of entrepreneurs, leaders, and ordinary employees in a company, a product, or an idea can unleash tremendous amounts of innovation and productivity. Yet today’s extraordinary trust in the power of the charismatic CEO resembles less a mature faith than it does a belief in magic. If, however, we are willing to begin rethinking our ideas about leadership, the age of faith can be followed by an era of faith and reason.

The adventure of looking for the charismatic leader sometimes asked us to turn our backs on attributes such as honesty, integrity, sensitivity, commitment, achievement, nurturing, trustworthiness, peacemaking, and courage.
But as Jim Collins explained so convincingly in his best-selling book Good to Great, it is the non-charismatic leader who seems to endure and shine in the long run. Collins writes:

Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders [leaders who have taken companies to unprecedented long-term growth] seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy—these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.

There are two pillars that support the attributes of a great leader: humility and endurance. Focusing on these two pillars is like so many things (golf included) that are both simple and complex. However, our experience tells us that great leaders allow these two attributes, whether natural or not, to strongly influence their leadership style. They learn how to overcome or “position” their natural tendencies. They let the two pillars “pull them through” their swing of everyday leadership and team building.
Great leaders seek to be humble people who lift up others and keep the spotlight on their companies, not themselves. They have a burning ambition to see tasks completed, and they balance that desire with a deep concern for the growth and development of people. They want to nurture relationships, help others flourish, and shove the fuss away from themselves.

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Blog Leadership

Training Leaders

by Ron Potter September 29, 2016

One of my clients that I’ve worked with for many years asked me to get certified as an executive coach. Now I’ll leave the judgment of whether I’m a good or bad coach to others (more on that in a minute) but I’ve been functioning as an executive coach since before the concept became popular.

I had been working with one executive for a few years when we had just finished a session with his top 40 leaders from around the world. As he and I were relaxing in his office after the session and sharing some of our experiences over the last couple of days he said to me “You’ve helped me build my leadership team to a level of performance that I didn’t know existed. And, you’ve helped me become a better leader than I could have imagined. And, you’ve helped us build a culture that I believe will survive this coming global shake-out that we’re beginning to see.”

Now, for a guy who preaches that the first element of great leadership is humility, I have to admit that I was overflowing with pride at that moment. Remember, the name of my company is Team Leadership Culture and he had just put his experience at the top of each of those categories. What else could he have said that would have been more flattering? Then he said something that absolutely shook my confidence. “But, your real value is …..” In that flash of a moment a shock went through my system because I had no idea what he was about to say next. He had just put my entire consulting practice framework, Team Leadership Culture, at the top of the list. What else could he say?

“But your real value is when we sit and talk like this.” I never thought that this time spent with leaders when we just sat and talked, shared, mentored, coached, learned together was of great value. This was before the time when “Executive Coach” was a common word in our language but I learned that evening how valuable this was. A CEO Executive Assistant once asked me “Are you selling drugs?” I laughed because I hoped it was meant in a humorous way and said “no, why do you ask?” She said “Because our CEO never grants more than one hour to anyone but when you show up he shuts off his entire afternoon and I just hear you in there laughing and talking. Are you selling drugs?”

So why did I need my Executive Coaching Certificate? It had been a corporate decision. All Executive Coaches must be certified! I did comply and while I did experience some value, my greater learning is that certification programs train you toward the norm. Certification means you have been trained to meet certain standards. It assumes there is a right way to approach coaching with systems, techniques and practices. I find that coaching is completely unique with each individual and doing things a standard way can only lead to standard results at best. When I asked the client that was pressing me to get certified if they had seen any difference between certified and non-certified coaches the answer was “no.” There are good and bad certified coaches, good and bad non-certified coaches.

My conclusion to all of this rambling is that leadership is developed not trained. Training by definition says to “teach a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time.” A second definition is to point or aim toward something. Leadership is dealing with the unknown. Management is dealing with the known. You can train managers when you know what to aim for but you must develop leaders.

Development by definition says to “grow or cause to grow and become more mature, advanced, or elaborate.” Leaders need to be developed. Mentor them, coach them, disciple them but don’t train them. Leaders developing leaders takes time, dedication and the building of trust. Are you a trainer or developer? Are you being trained or developed? Be/seek out that coach. Be/seek out that mentor. Grow!

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Blog Favored Trust Me

Favored Are Those Who Calm the Waters

by Ron Potter June 13, 2016

A passionate man turns even good into evil and easily believes evil; a good, peaceable man converts all things into good.
—Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Does it seem puzzling to find the term peacemaker included in a list of qualities necessary for a trusted leader? Does peace sound a bit too passive in today’s business environment?
We are desperately in need of some peace and quiet. Work—all of life—is more stressful than ever before. James Citrin writes:

Late nights in the office. Early mornings to clear overnight e-mails. Weekends to catch up on all the things you didn’t have time to do during the week. Most people in business simply cannot work harder or faster than they are at present—we’re all sprinting just to keep up. As the old saw says, the race goes to the swift. And in the now-distant boom times, being first to market and hurrying obsessively to get out ahead made working in overdrive the norm.
But in our collective rush to get ahead, maybe we have lost something…certain actions, decisions, and initiatives do have their own rhythms, and we should be sensitive to them. Don’t you agree that on some days, things just flow, while on other days, no matter how hard you push, things just don’t move forward?

A peacemaker is a leader who seeks to create calm within the storms of office politics, decision making, shareholder demands, cash-flow crunches, and the endless change of things the organization cannot control such as the economy, the weather, the fleeting loyalty of today’s consumer, and a host of other constantly evolving issues.

One of the jobs of a leader is to prepare the organization for times of great demand. There have been many studies on the effects of overtime work. When additional hours of work are initially introduced, productivity climbs. However, research also shows that if the overtime continues for more than about two months, productivity falls back to its original level in spite of the additional hours worked. Leaders who neglect to give the organization rest will not be prepared when the real push comes. And, in fact, they are not getting a good return on their investment by keeping everyone working long hours over extended periods of time.

Leaders need to know when to let the organization (people) slow down and rest a bit so that they are ready to go when those two or three tough times during the year require that extra effort.

Take a look at your world. Some people on your team are fed up with the daily push and shove. They are overworked and worn out. They feel vulnerable and fearful, and they are seeking personal peace to do a job they feel they can do but for whatever reason cannot.
A good leader knows the value of bringing some calm to stressful situations. As Jesus once said to those under his leadership, “Peace I leave with you.… Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Peace means equilibrium, understanding, justice, mercy, caring, and harmony. To be a peacemaker means to quench the desire for revenge and replace it with the desire to put others first for their well-being.

However, peacemaking does not mean seeking peace at any cost, for the peacemaker realizes that peace at any price will usually result in events that are anything but peaceful. A peacemaker is not an appeaser. He or she is not a person who is easy to shove around and who refuses to take a position. We are not talking about wimpy leaders who avoid confrontation. Quite the contrary. A peacemaker understands the positive role of conflict in building a solid team. A peacemaker is one who through strength and knowledge establishes good relationships between estranged parties—relationships based on truth and fairness.

Peacemaking leaders encourage open discussion and honest debate, which actually improves relationships. Harmony comes from the trust that is developed, not from the suppression of discussion and debate. In fact, great peacemaking leaders create more energized debate than normal.

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Short Book Reviews

Helping

by Ron Potter May 3, 2016

Ron’s Short Review:
I consider Edgar Schein one of the fathers of Organizational Culture thinking. Read anything by Edgar and you’ll be learning something worthwhile. In this simple book however, he gives some astounding advice on helping people in the most impactful way from your employee to your spouse to your child. His framework of the roles of client and helper will quickly explain so much about why attempting to help sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

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Blog Trust Me

The Rewards of You-First Leadership

by Ron Potter March 21, 2016

Are you the kind of person who believes in the “fixed pie” view of the world? “There is only so much pie to go around, so if I don’t get mine first, there won’t be any left after everyone takes theirs.” Or do you believe in an expanding pie? “If we all do a great job, there will be more than enough to go around for all of us.” “You first.”

A “you-first” leadership style goes beyond humility. Humility says, “I’m no better than you; we are equally important.” A “you-first” attitude puts the other person out front.

Becoming a “you-first” leader may sound a bit like career suicide. Isn’t this just another way to get trampled while climbing the corporate ladder? While this can happen, there are actually great personal and professional rewards awaiting the person intent on taking care of the needs of others first. In the long run compassion, like humility, will be an asset that will propel you into being an admired leader, one whom others will follow. It will also provide you with a great deal of personal satisfaction and delight.

Having a “you-first” attitude will result in a new and better personal leadership paradigm. Instead of viewing employees and others as those in need of control and reshaping, you will move toward becoming a coach who provides people with honest feedback. You will create a safe environment in which people are free to share honestly about your programs, ideas, vision, and initiatives.

Another way to look at yourself and develop good habits is to examine whether you act as an old-style boss, or whether your actions (not intentions, but real actions) are directed toward empowering others.

Though simple in concept, being a leader who puts his or her people first is difficult to put into practice. It takes time, energy, commitment, patience, and a host of other self-sacrificing qualities. That’s the price. However, putting others first does work. This way of showing compassion will create an environment where top performance is possible. And you will experience great personal satisfaction as you watch people grow, learn, stretch, and become “you-first” leaders themselves.

My hope is that you will embark on this journey of putting others first. It may take a lifetime to get this “right,” but you will never regret it.

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Blog Trust Me

Characteristics of a “You-First” Leader

by Ron Potter March 14, 2016

One way to find out whether a leader has a “you-first” perspective is to ask, “Do others grow as individuals under this person’s leadership?” While benefiting from this leader’s compassion, do others become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to develop a “you-first” attitude?

The following qualities define a leader who is committed to being last rather than first:

1. Commitment to the growth of people

In their book The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner write, “Any leadership practice that increases another’s sense of self-confidence, self-determination, and personal effectiveness makes that person more powerful and greatly enhances the possibility of success.”

A commitment to growing people is not a temporary fix, a quick solution to a problem, or a short-term shot in the arm that helps them only today. Commitment to growth is a long-term investment in other people. It increases their opportunities to grow, learn, and use what they have learned to its greatest benefit. When their growth multiplies, the organization’s growth and maturity multiplies.

2. Listening

Good leaders are too often viewed as being great verbal communicators and decision makers. While these attributes are important, leaders need to expand their leadership style to include a deep commitment to listening to others. How can an effective leader understand the needs of his or her employees, customers, suppliers, or market without listening intently to them? Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers remarked, “Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.”

What made a difference for me was when I finally grasped the concept of listening with the intent to understand. I had always listened with the intent to respond. The entire time I was listening, my mind was developing responses, recording counterpoints, cataloging quick points that I was sure the other person would find helpful when I responded. Listening with the intent to respond is not compassionate. It is not humble. It’s self-focused. Listening with the intent to understand is indeed focused on the other person.

As I work with leaders and spend time listening with the intent to understand, I’m amazed at how much they are willing to share with me when they know I fully intend not to just hear them but also to understand.

3. Awareness

Both self-awareness and general awareness direct leaders to better understand situations and people. Robert Greenleaf wrote, “Awareness is not a giver of solace—it is just the opposite. It is a disturber and an awakener. Able leaders are usually sharply aware and reasonably disturbed. They are not seekers after solace. They have their own inner serenity.”

Awareness helps leaders discern how to properly put others first.

4. Empathy

This is identifying with and understanding another’s situation, feelings, and motives. People need to know they are accepted and recognized for their special gifts and talents.

5. Healing

One of the greatest assets of a “you-first” leader is the ability to approach another person as a healer in a spirit of help and compassion.

6. Persuasion over power

Many times when a job is hard to do, poor leaders rely on sheer power rather than persuasion. The compassionate leader seeks to engage others rather than force compliance. There’s a desire to build consensus rather than use authoritarian power. Compelling stories, sometimes called parables help people see not only a different perspective but often how things can be better for them. Power trips and plays deflate people and do not allow them to think for themselves.

This list of six characteristics of a “you-first” leader is by no means exhaustive, but each quality is fundamental if you want compassion to be a key component of your leadership style.

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Blog Leadership

Become a Better Learner

by Ron Potter March 3, 2016

That’s the headline from a Harvard Business Review article I read today. Being a better and continual learner is one of the strong indicators of great leaders. All great leaders are great learners. But the first line of the article is what captured my interest even more. It said:

“Staying within your comfort zone is a good way to prepare for today but a terrible way to prepare for tomorrow.”

Now that is a wonderful line.

I’ve worked with Dr. Dan Denison for a number of years. Dan created the Denison Culture Survey which in my experience is still the best culture survey on the market today. But it was something Dan said years ago that has always captured my interest. Dan is an amateur race car driver and he really enjoys the sport. During one conversation he said “If you’re always in control as go around the track you’re not going fast enough to win.” Race winners are always out of control at some point during the circuit.

None of us likes to be out of control or out of our comfort zone for long. But personal learning and growth or even winning races require that we step out of that comfort zone or reach beyond our control at least some of the time.

One of the advancements we’ve all seen taking place the last few years is in “big data”. By analyzing huge amounts of data new learnings are beginning to emerge that were just impossible to see in the past. It’s amazing to me how IBM’s Watson is now being applied to medical situations and other environments to help the experts in the field see new information or see new patterns in the old information. However, I’ve also seen a dangerous pattern in corporate leadership that assumes more data and information will help leaders make more informed and better decisions about the future. Let me cycle back to the quote that started this post:

“Staying within your comfort zone is a good way to prepare for today but a terrible way to prepare for tomorrow.”

More data may help us prepare for and react better today, but we still need to get out of our comfort zone and let go of complete control to make good decisions about tomorrow. Making decisions about tomorrow requires a different skill set than making decisions about today.

You may be better skilled on one side of this equation or the other. Often I see partnerships where the Chief Operating Officer is good at making today’s decisions, the Chief Executive Officer is good at anticipating the future. Corporate Controllers are good at making today’s decisions, Chief Financial Officers are good at preparing for the future. I can think of this combination at almost every level of the organization. So how do you build both skills into the organization? TEAM. Building great teams that are good at all aspects of today and tomorrow and learning how to balance the needs of the company are the winners in the end. Sometimes you just need to get out of your comfort zone or let things get out of control for a moment to win!

Which side of this equation do you fall on? Who have your partnered or teamed with that helps balance your comfort zone or need for control?

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