Model the Way

I'm in the middle of reading The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. This is an excellent book I highly recommend. When I have more time I'll go into greater detail but I wanted to post very briefly on practice one of the five practices of exemplary leadership: Model the Way.

How often do "leaders" sabotage themselves because they don't practice what they preach? I'm reminded of the old adage "what you ARE screams so loud I can't here what you're SAYING". Sometimes we put the cart before the horse by worrying about the message more than the messenger (ourselves). Covey talks about the need to have our private victories (mastery of self) before public victories.

Kouzes and Posner sum it up perfectly. Effective leaders must model the very behavior they seek for their organization. And it's no coincidence that Model the Way is the first of the five practices. Effective leadership starts with the leader. If the leader has not internalized exemplary leadership practices himself or herself, he or she cannot expect exemplary "followership" from the organization. We'll talk more about this in an upcoming post.

Another non-political political post: The leadership styles of McCain and Obama

Here's an interesting read I came across at the LA Times. It compares the leadership styles of John McCain and Barack Obama.

Click here to view story:

From the bookshelf....

I just picked up this book for a buck in Fort Collins. At one time I was a huge Clancy fan but haven't read anything of his for the past five or six years. This one is Into the Storm - a nonfiction book about military leadership. I'm always fascinated by military leadership as it deals with life and death situations - literally! Plus Clancy is a great writer.

Now if I could just get through the five different books I'm reading right now!

Can we talk?

I’ve recently been working with two different teams focusing on training initiatives. One team is tasked with delivering leadership skills to ops and team managers, the other is putting together a regular training session for more senior leaders – directors, executives, etc. Interaction with both of these teams has reminded me of a very simple concept: it’s good to talk!

I have been impressed with the great ideas that have been percolating in both groups. In both instances, folks have been brought together that wouldn’t normally interact with each other. It has been very enlightening to get leaders together from various accounts and departments and the synergy has been unmistakable and quite contagious. I think the great discussion taking place in both groups will be as beneficial to the organization as the training programs that will ultimately be built. Sometimes just talking is a wonderful thing.

A bi-partisan solution to the mess we're in...

This is not a political blog but I think I've got a solution to the current financial mess we're in. Granted, it's not a quick fix but in the long run I think it will help tremendously. Perhaps you've heard of this strategy. It's called "vote the bums out!"

Here's my strategy: From now on we need to always vote for the non-incumbent candidate. It's as simple as that. If you're a democrat then you vote for the non-incumbent democrat in the primary election. If you're a republican you vote for the non-incumbent republican in the primary election. That part is pretty easy. The hard part comes during the general election - you have to vote for whichever candidate is not the incumbent even if that means crossing party lines. This may be hard to bring ourselves to do, but the only way to see any real change is to get back to what the founding fathers intended.

In alot of ways this will make the whole election process much easier. Heck, you don't even have to stay up on the issues. All you have to do is vote against the incumbent. No matter what - No exceptions - even if you like the incumbent. You've got to vote them out. The only little wrinkle comes when neither candidate is an incumbent (like the current presidential race). If that's the case, no problem; feel free to engage in all the rancorous partisan squabbling you want. Just remember, if your guy or gal wins, you have to vote him or her out in four years. This plan only works if we are constantly rotating a fresh crop of politicians. Imagine how much better things would be if our politicians were not entrenched like they currently are. Vote the bums out! Even if you like the bums. Vote the incumbent out every single ding dang time! (You know I'm serious when I start dropping the ding dang bomb!)

The founders never intended for politics to be a career. The idea was that a farmer, shop keeper, lawyer or doctor would leave their vocation for a short time to serve in public office (for two, four or six years depending on the office) then go back home and resume their normal life. I'm sure the founders would be rolling in their graves if they saw the dismal quality of our elected leaders right now. And the lure of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other Wall Street perks has definately sullied the virtue of the process. I recently heard someone refer to congress as the "island of misfit toys". I couldn't agree more. What do we do with misfit toys? We return them! Let's just send them all back home after one term!

It is pure folley to think the very boneheads who caused the current problem - boneheads abound on both sides of the aisle - can solve it. Personally, I will not be voting for Obama but I do agree with his "Vote for Change" theme, albeit in a different context perhaps. So, on November 4th I will be voting against every incumbent on the ballot. Please join me.

I'll step down from my soapbox now....

From the bookshelf....

We're currently in the process of conducting a director's forum and will be using The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner as our text. This is considered one of the standards in leadership. I've never read it so I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to say.

Effective Leadership: A Walla Walla winery and the law of the harvest

Last Friday the entire North Idaho L&D team took a field trip to Walla Walla to tour Hence Winery. Even though I don't drink and was not involved in the sampling that the rest of the team enjoyed, I found myself quite fascinated by the whole wine making process. It reminded me of Covey's discussion of the Law of the Harvest.

We learned from the winery owner and our tour guide, Henderson Orchard, that it takes, at minimum, five years from the time the first starts are planted until a winery can actually have wine ready for the market. That's alot of lead time! Imagine all the work and care that must happen during that five years. And there are no short cuts! Owning and operating a winery is a major investment - of time, money, energy and sweat, all in the hopes that after years of hard work it will pay off.

Covey points out that farmers (or winemakers for that matter) can't "cram" for the "final exam" like some of us did in school. Imagine if a farmer kept putting off all the important things that need to be done to have a healthy crop - plowing, raking, seeding, fertilizing, watering, weeding - until the night before harvest time. That would be silly right? Yet do we sometimes try to cut corners when it comes to developing our employees? Effectively leading others is hard work. There's no "cramming" allowed. Perhaps you've heard the banking account analogy? Forging a healthy relationship is like maintaining a healthy bank account. We need to be making more deposits than withdrawals or we will go broke. And a "broke" relationship is not much fun for anyone. (I'll discuss this analogy in more detail in a later post.)

A good relationship with our team (or our spouse or kids) is governed by the Law of the Harvest just as much as the vineyard. Without planning, planting, growing, nurturing, hard work and plenty of patience, neither will be very productive.