The darkened road

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens," speaks master Tolkien.

This is the leadership test. Some are given a leadership position, but leadership will be established in the loss, success, and midst of the crucible. The leader must always, and will not always, be successful. Churchill, Leonidas, Ceci St. Geme, Frodo, R. Lee, and all others had lost in the past.

Great free advice

If you are not reading Tom Foster's "Management Skills Blog", you are missing great advice in a socratic dialogue methodology. If you are a leader, make it a habit to read it daily!

Coaching and Mentoring

J. Farrington of the Leadership Turn writes about the "The New Model Leader". Coaching and mentoring are hard and many executives may not have this skill or talent. According the Buckingham and Coffman, if it is a skill it may be learned and trained. However, if it is a missing talent it cannot be taught.

There are basically two options if lacking this skill or talent: If a missing skill, the executive can receive training in order to become more coaching-like. If it is a missing talent, the executive should hire a coach or mentor to receive feedback on what needs to be done. The bottom line is the skill can be learned and integrated eventually without the help of a coach and the talent will need a constant presence in some form. This can be like a counselor that a person visits, a consultant, or someone full time.

The main problem is that many executives have developed habits over the long haul that will be hard to change into a coaching model.

Slaves vs. Warriors

From King Leonidas in 300 "You have many slaves, Xerxes. But few warriors. It won't be long before they fear my spears more than your whips."

A wise quote from the movie. It is a good thought for leaders. Are your followers driven by fear of punishment or driven by desire for the good of society, company, co-worker, and self? History has provided countless examples of battles fought by true followers vs. slaves and/or mercenaries. Time and again, the true followers are given the title of hero while the others are forgotten.

Leadership in business, etc. is not different. Either you will lead others to greatness or you will be forgotten at best or hated at worst. Which company do you think will provide better employee engagement and pride, customer service, and loyalty?

While adding benefits is a good as a reward for a job well done, as a retention tool it fails. Benefits as a retention tool are similar to the mercenary in an army. If the employee is seeking money for the sake of money, how long will that person stay in the midst of hard times or when offered a higher wage from a competitor? Talent retention is a creeping problem, especially as boomers retire. Offering more money, more vacation, etc. will never bring a company to greatness. The highest value will be effectiveness without heart. And then the pressure is to make sure the employee is compensated highly because there will be other companies seeking that employee's talent and willing to pay more for it. Attraction and retention of talent will prevail because of the company's treatment of people, not solely pay.

Parental workers

At Three Star Leadership, Wally Bock mentions a suspicion I have been pondering. It is not that parents are better leaders than those without children.

My take:
-parents are leading children all the time and leadership is a big deal to children
-parents understand the pressures of parents and many employees have children. I remember a teacher I had who at that time did not have children. Her requirements and expectations changed drastically after having a child.
-Fatherhood and Motherhood have many leadership characteristics, my suspicion is that there should be a study soon on this style of leadership. Read Covey, DePree, Wheatley, Buckingham and Coffman, etc. They mention relationships are key to leadership. Parental relationship is the building block of human relationships.
-More children, better leaders?
-Who will teach your children the ins and outs of relating to others?

Summed up: "Multiply and bear fruit."

"Out of the mouth of babes..."

From Jake Aguas at Leading Christianly: "I recently asked a group of colleagues to name individuals whom they admired as leaders and received a list of some of the most well-accomplished people in business, sports and the entertainment industry. Donald Trump, Tom Brady and George Lucas emerged as the most popular choices. Contrast this with the responses I received when I asked a few children the exact same question. They were quick to point out their teachers, grandparents, parents, siblings, coaches and friends as their most-admired leaders."

If we only realized how children see the world then we may realize how much we influence the lives of our children.

The Sexth Sense

A recent study of women and men and their pay scales shows "Women make only 80 percent of the salaries their male peers do one year after college; after 10 years in the work force, the gap between their pay widens further, according to a study released Monday.

The study, by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, found that 10 years after college, women earn only 69 percent of what men earn."

If this sex discrimination, then it is shameful. I know many women, professional and not, that are incredible people and do fantastic jobs. Up front, I am not a chauvinist. My wife can testify to that statement, and I think many friends would agree.

That said, I do say "if." Because it appears the study is correlational meaning that a cause will not be determined, only that a correlation exists.

I have a keen interest in women leadership. I really want to see women excel and be compensated for the work they do. In regards to leadership, I think many scholars on women leadership seem to miss the boat. Many spend so much time trying to convince women to be more manly for many reasons. One reason is to receive the same pay. I think salary should be equal for equal talent. However, that is very unlikely given that each person brings different skills, etc.

I think along the lines that women should not become manly to rise to the top. Women should use the exact strengths that many men use, their strengths in union with their nature. Women are womanly. Use this. Women are nurturing. Men can be too and should be, but I would say it is more natural for a woman to be nurturing. In leadership development, coaching is one the primary tools to pass on leadership skills. This is nurturing. I would say a woman is going to be able to create more leaders if she uses her nurturing nature. But women are seldom told to use what is natural to them. In fact, I have read some studies that recommend women should become more manly. This is counter-productive because women are not men.

Women make 80% of a man's salary after college and 69% after 10 years working. A question I often ask many people when something seems to be working wrongly is "How is that working for you?" Well, women have been strongly active in the workforce for 80 years now. It has been 35 years or so since the "feministic revolt," how is it working for women being more manly?

"First, Break All the Rules"

I have enjoyed this book so far. I started reading it yesterday. For those that like books based on extensive research, this book offers goods backed by numbers. I have not looked at the testing, validity, etc., but the information seems reasonable. Here is a quote that caught my attention: "...people leave managers, not companies." That kind of puts more pressure on HR to find qualified candidates, not just quantifiable applicants. Find the right managers and they will save you money AND make your company a better place to work. I have not read the book yet, but it appears the book "The No Asshole Rule" may give some information on the topic.

Natural Talent/Virtue Discussion. go and make your point!

Jonathan Farrington of Leadership Turn provides a good article with Shakespeare on greatness. It is an opportunity for discussion on whether "born great" includes natural talents and/or virtues.

Which Leadership Models/Theories are Yours?

Which leadership model do you follow? And if you do follow a model, are you a leader given that you are following? Discuss. Models: Style, Trait, Situational, etc.? Theory: Path-Goal, Contingency, LMX, etc.? Of course, it could be mixture. Include personal examples from your experiences please.

Leadership studies anyone???

Here is an older article on the lack of leadership skills in the UK. In business speak, the bottom line for lacking leadership skills is $$$.

Funny thing is that I am sure some in leadership positions will keep doing the same thing with getting the same results. Of course, I think it was Einstein who mentioned this was a defintion of insanity.

As a leader, if you are getting the same results like lack of retention, low employee morale, non-motivated workforce, and smaller things like employee gossip try something different after you have researched some prescriptions.

Honesty about Honesty: Leadership Virtue

"No legacy is so rich as honesty." - William Shakespeare

Think about ancient and contemporary leaders. Have you ever held a person up that was not honest? Honesty is one the traits that continuously appears on leadership lists because followers want a leader to be up front and clear about expectations. It is naturally difficult to follow dishonesty because the follower does not know what to believe and reject. Honesty is closely related to reality. Bossidy and Charan in "Execution" drive home the point that a leader must face reality, that is real reality.

This may seem obvious, but think about it. In today's culture, the average person has tons of credit debt. In the false reality, it appears the furniture, car, appliances, etc. are really his. However, the reality is that he does not own them in the sense that they are his possession. At this point they are lent to him. It can be taken away.

Application: Take a real look at yourself. This is easiest with the help of a coach, spouse, friend, or even trusted employee. Ask them to be honest and give feedback about a certain behavior. The feedback will probably be closer to reality than your own perception to how others perceive you. Then, set a goal to change the behavior. This will start you off along the path that followers will begin to see honesty.

"...80 percent said leadership development is the talent management process most needing improvement..."

Kathy Gurchiek of SHRMOnline reports:

"A gap in the leadership pipeline, not the pending retirement of key workers, is a leading challenge for organizations, according to a 12-month survey of 700 U.S. organizations that included interviews with 60 HR executives.

Bersin & Associates, an independent research and advisory service, touted its study, High-Impact Talent Management, as the first comprehensive analysis of the talent management market.

It discussed its findings on HR best practices, HR systems, business outcomes, organizational models and workforce issues in a March 28, 2007, webcast. The full results were to be published in May.

Among the findings:

-Just over 80 percent said leadership development is the talent management process most needing improvement and the function that best defines talent management."

This is a call for leadership students and practioners. Study hard, it will soon payoff!

Do you know a leader that fits these...

Kevin Kearns makes some reasonable comments on leadership mistakes. Sometimes a good learning experience comes from "what not to do."

FYI, Top7Business seems like a pretty good website to cruise around. I will spend more time and comment later.

People get better with a good leader

Leadership is super important for a thriving workplace. Don Huse of Venturion in San Antonio recently blogs about the issue.

Gone are the days when the workplace is a dredge. These days company loyalty is low, this is a leadership problem. Employees move around until they find job satisfaction. This entails not only using their skills, but allowing the follower to grow in their skills. This is an aspect of thriving. Common sense says that a person with skill motivation will grow and work better than the unmotivated in a sterile company. This is studied in the "Culture Era" of leadership according to Seters and Field in the "The Evolution of Leadership Theory." The company culture creates a work force that grows in their skills AND become more self-accountable and responsible. The employee begins to lead others and self. Imagine a consturction site in which the foreman does not worry about the work ethic of the laborers. How much work will the foreman be able to accomplish without constantly worrying and checking up on followers?

Communication and Writing

Check out this and this for good reads on communication and writing. Leaders need both. Thanks to Kevin of kevineikenberry.com and Leadership501 (I think Mark) for the good posts on communication and writing.

Courage

Leadership Turn has a good take on courage that most leaders learn to practice. Considering it is a virtue, it is attractive and always has been. CS Lewis comments on courage when he gives the example that couarge is objectively good in all culture. As he mentions, what culture (ancient or contemporary) gives medals of honor (as if honor is not also a virtue and objectibely good) to the person who runs away from the front lines in battle? This person is generally labelled a coward. Honor is another example, who presents a "Medal of Dishonor?" More to come.

Implementation: Couarge has simple and complex applications. Similar to a muscle, it must be worked out. Practice and practice are the ways to become stronger in courage. Don't be fooled. Don't expect to master courage in the big decisions without first mastering them in the small. Small ways to grow in courage is finding values and live by them, the values will definitely find friends and foes and courage will grow as you are tested on the values you have found. A very practical example is waking up when the alarm sounds rather than hitting the snooze. Some have called this the "heroic minute."

Another article

Here is another article found on traits . It is still a very relevent topic for discussion even though it is one of the oldest models of leadership.

Leadership Turn

Leadership Turn: "Leadership has been defined as “the ability to inspire willing action”. Emphasis is placed on the willing. But to understand leadership, we need to delve a little deeper than that.
One thing which experience has proven over and over again down through the ages is that when any group of people are thrown together for any length of time or for any project, a leader will emerge from the group - one to whom they will listen and give their confidence and support.
Their position on the organisation chart or their title alone cannot make a person a genuine leader. They must have certain traits and skills, or they will surely fail. In business, it has been shown again and again that these skills can be learned and the traits can be developed in any individual who is willing to exert an effort based on strong desire and a true hunger for success."

This is something that many fail to understand. Leadership skills are learned and taught. Either a leader guides people to success or they push them further away from success. The latter can be called a tyrant, Hitler comes to mind.

Historically, leadership has been studied and theorized by different practioners and scholars. Stogdill comes to mind in the trait department. A list of traits continues to grow and will continue because each leader holds different traits. Some are more common. Similar to sports, some people say that a person has "natural talent." Whatever that is. Every athlete I know practices and practices and is coached, even the best. Leadership is not different.

A Leadership Blog

Hello. I will go by the name JQ. The blog will mainly cover leadership thoughts, practices, and ideas. As a current student of organizational leadership, I find this avenue a good and easy way for me to put thoughts to words and hopefully engage others in the process. Why "Lead to Succeed?" Well, as many will say, people need a leader, machines need a manager. I will define success in the common sense and in the sense of a happy life. Enjoy.