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Dave Anderson has created a “Fab-Five” list of Leadership Principles and I have to say I’m challenged by each one:

1. Leaders are there to serve followers;
   the followers are not there to serve leaders.
2. Don’t treat unequals equally.
3. Building a foundation on moral sand doesn’t last.
4. Hold others accountable for results.
5. You can’t do it alone.

While I intellectually agree with this list, I realize I need to put them into practice more consistently.

I often look for ways to serve my leaders - instead of ways to serve those who are following me. I guess there’s a tension there that has to be balanced. I need to serve my superiors, but I know those who look to me for leadership need my help to do their job as well.

I’m afraid I have a hard time treating anyone equally - but I probably give non-performers too much ground before confronting them. I think it is necessary to treat all people with respect and dignity. However, treating performers and non-performers equally in respect to their results is a recipe for disaster.

I think the thrid principle is the easiest to overlook because I consider myself to be a man of character and integrity. While I may have high moral standards, I need to always be building a strong moral foundation in all aspects of my life. Do I always act with moral consistency? How quick am I to compromise my principles when it is to my immediate benefit?

The fourth principle is challenging as well. Do I hold others accountable for their results? In the current project I’m leading at work, I need to actually let the team know the expectations - so I can hold them accountable. Without the standard, how can they know if they measure up?

The final principle is so easy to violate. It is so easy to get a super-hero complex and think that a little more work on my behalf will make the difference. While at times this pays off, it is a quick step on the path to burn-out. I need to allow others to succeed and to thrive - if I rob them of the opportunity to grow by doing everything myself I am doing them a disservice as their leader.

In my Dale Carnegie course tonight we talked about how to correct someone when they’ve failed to meet some expectation, or otherwise behaved inappropriately. There are five steps to this correction process, and they have to occur in order. Here’s my summary of the presentation:

1. Rapport - Do you have a healthy relationship with the person who requires correction? If there is no mutual respect, or rapport, how can you expect a positive outcome? First seek to build rapport.

2. Relate to the Problem - Don’t beat the person up over the issue. If possible, share a personal example of when you made a similar mistake. Relate the problems to something you experienced and indirectly reference their mistake for maximum results. Ask questions to clarify or to solve the issue instead of giving orders. Always remember the person isn’t under attack. Their behavior may be, but never the person.

3. Restore Confidence - Confronting our personal shortcomings is never fun - it hurts! We need to look for opportunities to help those we confront save face and keep their dignity in the face of correction. Look for opportunities to encourage and build up the person after a corrective action has been taken. Carnegie says, “Give the person a fine reputation to live up to.”

4. Reassure - Make sure you convey your confidence in the person that they are capable of making the change. In fact, assure them that you know it is an easy adjustment for them to make. Look for ways to encourage and harness the persons desire to improve to create incentive for them to change.

5. Remove - As a last resort, remove the person from the position or the company if they are unwilling to accept correction or direction. It may be that they are in the wrong seat on the bus - or it may be that they got on the wrong bus altogether. Give them the opportunity to use their strengths in an environment that can benefit greatly from them.

I’ve noticed an interesting principle in the corporate world lately. I think it was there several years ago when I was working full time, but for some reason I’m seeing it more clearly today. The principle is played out in individuals’ attempts at climbing the corporate ladder. They carefully weigh each rung of the ladder, and try to play every opportunity to their greatest advantage. They monitor how they look to others and use words like “self-promotion” to express their attempts to maximize their career aspirations.

I could see myself getting caught in the same trap, but I realize now that a paradox is at work. As hard as I try, I cannot control what others think of me. That’s the nature of our ability to think independently. Your opinion of me is just that: your opinion. I may call what others think, “my reputation,” but in the end, I’m really saying that a lot of people hold the same opinion of me. Does my reputation really mean anything more than that?

John Wooden talked about this very thing, saying that you cannot control your reputation. You can only control your character. The decisions I make that are character decisions, if they are consistent, will eventually shape the opinion others have of me. If I consistently choose poorly, and compromise my character, my reputation - and the opinion others hold, will likely suffer greatly. If I consistently choose wisely, my reputation may improve, but it may not. The opinion of others is very fickle.

Think about the difference between these two efforts: building my reputation or building my character. If I strive to build my reputation, what am I really doing but trying to win at the game of politics? If instead I endeavor to build my character, I’ll be a better person - stronger and more capable regardless of others’ opinions. And when a crisis hits - will it matter what others have thought of me all along? Not in the least. Character is revealed in crisis - but it is formed much earlier. A reputation has too little substance to withstand a crisis. But if a reputation is built on character, the reputation will stand because the person’s character supports it.

So I will work on building strong character traits and let my reputation be supported by it.

Carly Fiorina gave the commencement address at MIT in 2000, and I was impressed at her clarity and her insight into what constitues leadership today. As a former CEO of Hewlett Packard, Carly knows a thing or two about leadership. The take-away quote for me was as follows:

A leader’s greatest obligation is to make possible an environment… where people can aspire to change the world.
— Carly Fiorina

I had to ask myself, “Do I want to change the world?” Really? Deep down inside? I know I want to change to become a better, more grounded, more mature, more faithful person. But do I want to change the world? That seems to me a mighty undertaking.

As a leader in my church, I think this quote is a genuine challenge. Do I cultivate an environment where the people I lead are inspired, encouraged, and equipped to change the world? I think that I do, but I can be more clear when I express the vision of challenging others to grow to maturity in their faith and to become equipped to serve in ministries of their own.

My dream is honestly to see Christians grow to maturity in their faith and become effective stewards of the message God has passed on to us. It isn’t a business dream - though many Christians are in business, so businesses would be affected. It isn’t a dream that is measured in dollars and cents, but it is still tangible. It is a dream that is critical to the future of our world.

It may seem to some that the business world and the religious world should be kept completely separate. Some might call this separation of church and state - though I would say the original intent was not that church and state be separate, but that the state should never prohibit the free exercise of any religion. I believe that as I grow in maturity in my faith, there are side benefits that the other areas of my life reap, including the business world. Why wouldn’t the business world want to see these benefits?

As I grow in my faith, my character deepens. My leadership in business will always be limited by my depth of character. Look at Enron to see that character matters.

As I grow in my faith, my ability to communicate difficult concepts clearly improves - a skill desparately needed in the business world. Communication is critical in business. I have worked with brilliant co-workers who could not communicate their ideas or strategies in a coherent, non-technical manner - and some who could not communicate without being condescending.

As I grow in my faith, my ability to understand different view points, to stand by my convictions in the face of opposition, and to walk in confident humility will all be strengthened. Each of these are necessary in the business world.

This is the vision I want to pass on to those I lead: we can change the world, both secular and non-secular, by challenging the Christian church to grow to maturity in their faith, which is accomplished by equipping them to be effective servants in ministry.

More of Carly Fiorina’s speeches can be found here.

I just stumbled on a great resource - learntolead.com. It is packed with free articles on Leadership, Management, Sales, and more.

The articles are brief, which means they don’t try to cram a five paragraph essay into a ten-page paper. I’m still sorting through all the articles I printed for later reading. I’m sure I’ll comment on a few of them as I go.

Here’s a teaser, one article is titled: “Morons, Misfits, and Moochers: The Triple Threat to Your Organization.” Now doesn’t that sound like an interesting read?

I came across an excellent site that is the companion to a book titled, “Second Chair Leaders.” It talks about the challenges we face when we are responsible for leading in an organization, yet not the top leader on the team.

There is a sample article on the site that outlines three paradoxes these “Second Chair Leaders” face:

1. Subordinate-Leader: How do you follow and lead at the same time?

2. Deep-Wide: How do you develop deep expertise in the scope of your project, but maintain a wide “big-picture” view of the organizational goals?

3. Contentment-Dreaming: How do you simultaneously live in contentment with the current direction of the organization and contribute new ideas and dreams to stimulate future growth?

I’m wrestling with these ideas myself and grateful for someone who has articulated these challenges so well. The article on the site is great, but I’m looking at ordering the book once I complete a few on my night stand…

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m taking a course on Communication and Leadership Skills presented by the Dale Carnegie Course. Last night we had to give a short speech on a lesson we had learned and present it in the format:

1. Incident
2. Action
3. Benefit

The Incident is what happened - what’s the basic story that illustrates the point. The Action is the advice or point you want to share. Finally the Benefit describes what will be to the hearers advantage if they elect to take your advice or accept your point. We were told to share the Action we want to the audience to take in the format of, “My advice to you is …” We’d then share the Benefit in the format, “When you do …”

I shared the story below and had some very interesting feedback:

I was about seven or eight years old, living in a hut in a remote jungle of the Philippines with my parents who were missionaries. One day I asked my Dad to show me how we got the chicken meat that we often enjoyed at dinner. That afternoon we went outside to the area where we kept the chickens. My Dad caught one of the chickens and quickly wrung its neck. I helped hold the chicken on the chopping block and my Dad “surgically removed” the head with a machete.

Well, immediately the body sprung out of my hands and started flailing all around, running and bumping into things until it finally collapsed. My Dad picked up the dead body, had my Mom clean it, and said, “That’s where chicken comes from.”

My advice to you is be curious and ask questions. When you do you might get a good show.
— Jeff Pruett

After the evening was over, I caught up with some co-workers and one of them was obviously upset. Apparently my talk had seemed too insensitive to her as she cares deeply for animals. I tried to reassure her that the chicken felt nothing after it had it’s neck wrung. The rest of the action was just reflexes. It didn’t help. I hadn’t meant to offend, but realized that I wouldn’t be able to patch things up either. In the end, we went our separate ways, and hopefully she was able to accept my apology and move beyond the evening. We’ll see next week!

Some groups are more challenging than others to get past the barriers we naturally put up in group settings. Generating genuine discussion in a group takes strategic effort on behalf of the leader. I came up with three principles I try to implement as I lead, hopefully theyll help you as well:

1. Active Listening: As leaders, our behavior is a model for the rest of the group. Developing good listening skills is critical to keeping an active dialogue alive in the group. I find that when I lose eye contact with the speaker, or start shuffling through my notes to find the next question the group tends to drift off topic, or even lose momentum. I have to be careful to listen well to each member of the group so that the others in the group follow my lead.
   

2. Show Genuine Interest: I notice that as I take the time to develop relationships with members of the groups I lead they become more willing to share in the group setting. Developing a genuine interest in them and investing in our friendship encourages them to participate even more.
   

3. Give Sincere Appreciation: I am not always good at this, but I have seen more experienced leaders give honest, sincere appreciation in subtle ways to each person that contributes in their small group and have great success. I try to look for ways to affirm the members in my group as they participate. Something as simple as, “Thank you for sharing that Todd. I think we can all learn something from that insight,” may be enough to show my appreciation and encourage future involvement in the group.
   

I attended the second session of the Dale Carnegie Course this evening. We spent much of the evening dialoging with the instructor and others as we learned about and put into practice methods to remember critical information.

At one point we paired up and shared a bit about ourselves. The guy I was sharing with kind of looked at me funny when I said I enjoyed basketball as a hobby. He said, “But white guys can’t jump, right?” To which I quickly responded, “Yeah, but I play big.” We had a good laugh over it. And if you know me, you know how I have a tendency to think I’m bigger on the court than I really am - so there’s some truth in that.

At the end we went around the room and each person had to share their name and a memorable picture with which to associate that name. After each person had shared their names and pictures, we numbered off and had to write down the name that went with each number. About four people got all of the names (36 people, first and last), and though I didn’t get the spelling right on a few names, I was in that four. Hopefully I can build on that and keep remembering names well as the weeks go on.

All in all I enjoyed the session, and I’m able to be more intentional now as I remember names.

In my daily reading, I came across this excellent quote from Peter Drucker:

Effective leaders delegate a good many things; they have to or they drown in trivia. But they do not delegate the one thing that only they can do with excellence, the one thing that will make a difference, the one thing that will set standards, the one thing they want to be remembered for. They do it.
— Peter F. Drucker, “Your Leadership Is Unique,” Christianity Today.com

Drucker is a guy I’d like to read more on, both biographical and what he’s written in the areas of management and leadership. I know his life and writings have carried significant impact in the way corporate America views management and leadership practices.

The quote made me consider: What is the one thing I do best?

Not what is the one thing I do best in all arenas, but in a given arena, what is the one thing I do best? In the corporate world? In ministry? In my family?

Am I pouring my energy into what I do best in each arena? Or am I living under the tyranny of the urgent? Today feels like I’m a slave to whatever is most urgent, but I think recognizing my need to prioritize and focus my energy is a step in the right direction.