The Benefits of Open Dialogue about Leadership

Organisations benefit from the opportunity to invite open conversation about leadership, across all levels. If you are not already having such conversations, then perhaps you might start by asking questions like these:

• What does your company value most about its leadership?

• What improvements would you like to see?

• What is your company’s philosophy about leadership?

• What would outstanding leadership enable your company to do better?

• What leadership skills are critical for success?

• What is the impact of your company’s leadership on your employees? Your organisation? Your market? The community?

As you address these kinds of questions, make a commitment to raise the bar on the level of leadership that exists in your organisation. Build your leadership pool, but don’t let potential leaders sit too long. They’re anxious to lead.

The Benefits of Open Dialogue about Leadership

Poor Management Drives Half of Workers to Resign From Their Jobs

Half of workers have resigned because of bad management and a similar number believed they could do a better job than their boss.

A recent survey of 3,000 adults showed that one in two would be prepared to take a pay cut if they could work with a better manager. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) said UK firms invested less in managers than their competitors — and it showed.

Many bosses described themselves as ‘accidental managers’, with no training and no ambition to manage people at all, said the report. CMI chief executive, Ruth Spellman, said: “The figures reveal the depth of the crisis of confidence in UK management and leadership and the enormous toll bad management is taking on the UK economy and people's wellbeing. If we're going to stay competitive internationally, the Government and employers need to address this worrying skills gap."

Poor Management Drives Half of Workers to Resign From Their Jobs

Inspired Leadership

The real performance trigger for leaders who know what they are doing is getting ordinary people to deliver extraordinary market performance. And the key to it is inspired leadership. That’s you.

The answer isn’t ‘out there’ in terms of the best talent and your job is to go and get it. The answer is in you. Can you be inspiring enough to get ordinary people to perform out of their skins, and love doing it? That’s what the best organisations do and that’s what will lead your organisation safely through the downturn.

That’s what Captain Mike Abrashoff did when he turned around a poor-performing US naval ship to become the best-performing ship in the Pacific fleet in just a few months.

When he took command of USS Benfold, one of the most technologically advanced ships in the U.S. Navy’s arsenal, Commander Mike Abrashoff inherited a demoralised crew of “order-takers.” He realised that to be an effective commander, he would not only have to completely revamp USS Benfold’s culture, he would have to do so by abandoning the Navy’s traditional “command and control” model. Employing a grassroots leadership model, Abrashoff transformed his crew from order-takers into empowered decision makers, improving morale, increasing retention from 29% to an unprecedented 100%, and yielding $15 million in savings in one year!

He got his sailors to suggest to him ways of saving money. They did the job, he reasoned, so they were best-placed to suggest how to do it better and cheaper. One nineteen-year-old suggested using stainless steel rivets instead of iron ones. Abrashoff used the ship’s credit card to buy them from Home Depot, because the US Navy’s own procurement people couldn’t supply them. The new rivets, and other initiatives suggested by the crew, saved so much money that in his first year in charge, Abrashoff returned to The Pentagon $600,000 of his $2.4 million maintenance budget and $800,000 of his $3 million repair budget. That year he operated on 75% of his allocated budget. And his ship’s performance figures went through the roof.

“We saved money not because we were consciously trying to,” he explained, “but because my sailors were free to question conventional wisdom and dream up better ways to do their jobs.”

His ability to “envision the ship through the eyes of his crew” became a seminal case study for Fast Company magazine and the Harvard Business Review. This is a back-to-the-basics leadership story that begins at the core of an organisation and transforms its culture from the inside out, and from the top down.

For more on this fascinating story, see - http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/23/grassroots.html

Inspired Leadership

Respect - The Single Most Important Quality in Leadership

Here are some fascinating leadership observations from Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG:

'You cannot surround yourself with the smartest and most talented people and then start looking over your shoulder or behind your back, worried that somebody smarter or better might be on your heels. Big mistake.

Being respectful of people, I think, is the single most important quality in leadership — earning the respect of people who work with you, for you, your customers, your investors. That really to me is what defines successful leadership — earning that respect.

By definition if there’s leadership, it means there are followers, and you’re only as good as the followers. I believe the quality of the followers is in direct correlation to the respect you hold them in. It’s not how much they respect you that is most important. It’s actually how much you respect them. It’s everything.'
 
For more, see - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/business/08corner.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Respect - The Single Most Important Quality in Leadership

The Principles of Leadership

Leaders shape the future. Leaders bring change and leaders challenge the status quo. If there is no need for change, there is no need for leadership.

Leadership is a choice. Leadership does not just happen. Leadership is a choice we make to live out a vision and purpose daily.

Leaders are made and not born. Leaders know who they are, understand their unique purpose, strengths and skills. They use who they are to bring their vision into the present.

Leaders live their vision. They become the change that they want to see in the world. They set the example and show the way.

Leaders stimulate conversation. Leadership is about making a difference and driving change which stimulates conversation and debate. The ideas that get talked about are the ones worth talking about.

Leaders understand that character matters. Character establishes the foundation for trust. Without trust you cannot lead.

Leaders invest in themselves. Leaders take care of their spiritual, emotional, mental and physical needs.

Leaders are results focused. Leaders initiate and make things happen.

Leaders inspire. Leaders cannot achieve their visions alone. They inspire others to come alongside and participate in the journey.

Leaders leave a legacy. Success is what we do for ourselves whilst legacy is what we do for others. The legacy of  leaders is what they do for others and how they have invested in and developed others.

The Principles of Leadership

The Importance of Mentors

It is interesting to see the importance which the US Government places on mentoring young people - see, http://www.nationalmentoringmonth.org/  and this video:

The Importance of Mentors

Life's Rewards are Directly Proportional to the Efforts We Make

"There are a lot of people in this world who believe there's a huge gap between what they would like to do and what they are able to do," says Peyton Manning, the 2008 National Football League Most Valuable Player. "And I just don't understand that, because if you don't stretch, you cannot grow. And if you don't grow then others are going to pass you by."

"You have to decide: do you want to make things happen, or do you want to watch things happen. And I've found that people who watch things happen are usually left wondering what happened."

"Success changes as surely as the seasons do. It's a journey and the goals that we reach correspond directly to the distances that we're willing to go. In my opinion, our rewards are directly proportional to the efforts that we make. It's about not quitting at quitting time. The way I see it, the greatest risk isn't in taking the wrong action. It's in letting our fears prevent us from acting at all."

Life's Rewards are Directly Proportional to the Efforts We Make

Get a Life!: Leadership Lessons from White House Fellows

White House Fellows have been a select group since the programme began in the late 1960s. Many of them either were or became among the nation’s top leaders. Colin Powell was an early fellow and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s senior medical correspondent, was a fellow from 1997-98. Some of their insights on leadership are captured in Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows: Learn How To Inspire Others, Achieve Greatness and Find Success in Any Organization by former Fellow Charles Garcia.
 
Here are two:

• There's more to life than work. Great leaders are fueled by strong and supportive relationships with the people they love, regular exercise and setting aside time for reflection. Doris Kearns Goodwin (White House Fellow 1967-68), presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, concluded that those who live the richest lives manage to achieve a healthy balance of work, love and play. "To commit yourself to just one of those spheres without the others is to leave open an older age filled with sadness, because once the work is gone, you have nothing left," Goodwin said.

• Put your people first. To be a great leader you need to attend to your people with a laserlike focus. Mitchell Reiss (White House Fellow 1988-89) has seen a leader's focus on people from National Security Adviser and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At a picnic for National Security Council staff and families, Powell thanked Reiss’ wife for allowing Reiss to work the hours that he worked at the NSC. Reiss recalled, "That very brief but very personal interaction with Powell had an extraordinary impact on her. After he left, she turned to me and said, 'You better do a good job for that man. If you need to stay late at work, I will never complain.' That's the sort of transformative impact that leadership can have.”

Get a Life!: Leadership Lessons from White House Fellows

Lest We Forget

'Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, no hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will be as one.'  From John Lennon

Lest We Forget

The Qualities of Winners

What are the qualities which you should look for if you want to add 'winners' to you team?

• Winners are less sensitive to disapproval and rejection - they brush it off.
• Winners think 'bottom line'.
• Winners focus on the task at hand.
• Winners are not superstitious - they say, 'That's life'.
• Winners refuse to equate failure with self-worth.
• Winners don't restrict thinking to established, rigid patterns.
• Winners see the big picture.
• Winners welcome challenge with optimism.
• Winners don't waste time in unproductive thought.

The Qualities of Winners

'Attitude' - The Difference Maker in Leading Others

Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition.

Great leaders understand that the right attitude will set the right atmosphere, which enables the right responses from others.

As Charles Swindoll says:

'The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes.'

'Attitude' - The Difference Maker in Leading Others

Failure is NOT the Opposite of Success

"The Bob Dylan line always appealed to me: 'There's no success like failure and failure is no success at all.' It was a while before I understood it. Leaders need the ability to fail and then get up and go on. It doesn't matter if you don't learn from the failure. But it does matter that you get up and get on."  Bob Geldof


The perfect example of this view of life is Steve Jobs of Apple, today named by Fortune magazine as its CEO of The Decade:(http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/04/technology/steve_jobs_ceo_decade.fortune/index.htm).

How's this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanour to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Failure is NOT the Opposite of Success

What Leaders Can Do To Reduce Stress in the Workplace

Workplace stress can cut productivity and cost your company thousands of pounds annually.

In the UK, stress and anxiety as well as other mental health problems cost the average size company almost £1,000 a year per employee. In the USA, Harvard Business Review writer A. Perkins, advises that 60-90 percent of medical problems are associated with stress. Princeton, NJ insurance company Foster Higgins Co., reports that 45% of corporate after tax profits are spent on health benefits.

Forty-six percent of US workers report that their job is very stressful, according to Northwestern Life Insurance Company. And a 20-year study from the University of London reveals that unmanaged reactions to stress are more dangerous risk factors for cancer and heart disease than either cigarette smoking or high cholesterol foods.

Forty percent of job turnover in the USA is related to stress (Bureau of National Affairs), When you add in the stress related costs associated with quality control, customer service, sales and administration, you'll find that stress is taking a healthy bite out of your bottom line.

Bill Wilkerson, CEO of Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, conducted a survey to find the top ten workplace stressors. In a report to the Industrial Accident Prevention Association,Wilkerson listed the following:

"The treadmill syndrome" - employees have too much or too little to do. Some have too many responsibilities and work around the clock - even when away from the workplace. Others fill their days with unproductive busy-work, feeling the stress of knowing they could be more productive.

"Random interruptions" - telephones, walk-in visits, demands from supervisors. Goal setting and time management strategies can increase productivity and alleviate the stressfulness of incomplete projects.

"Pervasive uncertainty" - market conditions, company problems, unsatisfactorily explained and announced change. Economic fluctuations, off-shore job displacement, terrorist attacks, and market conditions all affect stress levels and productivity.

"Mistrust, unfairness, and vicious office politics" - keeps everyone on edge and uncertain about the future. Poor morale and esprit de corps increase stress levels and consume energy that could otherwise be directed at job related activities.

"Unclear policies and no sense of direction in the company" - undermines confidence in management. Development of sound policies is the first step. Management must then keep these policies updated and follow through to insure compliance throughout the ranks. Employees are easily stressed when it appears that management is out of touch.

"Career and job ambiguity" - a feeling of helplessness and lack of control. "How can I succeed if I don't know what's expected of me or if my job here is uncertain?" Stress levels are affected by far reaching market conditions, challenges by competitors, life-cycle of products, and societal influences as well as vagueness within management.

"No feedback - good or bad" - prevents people from knowing how they are doing and whether they are meeting expectations. Stress related to this issue is typically one of management misperception as to the amount, importance, and effectiveness of feedback to employees. Whatever the cause,employees are easily stressed by lack of communication in this area.

"No appreciation" - lack of recognition generates stress that endangers future efforts. Human nature requires that we demonstrate appreciation for jobs well done. Inadequate demonstration of appreciation results in lowered productivity.

"Lack of communications" - up and down the chain of command leads to decreased performance and increased stress. As with feedback, leaders sometimes misunderstand the adequacy and effectiveness of their communications. There are dozens of ways to improve communications, and employees will usually tell you of shortcomings - if they are asked.

"Lack of control" - the greatest stressor in the workplace because employees feel that they have no control over their participation or the outcome of their work. Employees recognise their lack of control when they are held responsible without authority. Stress levels are reduced when employees are involved in setting the course of the organisation, developing policies and strategies, and creating workplace expectations.

Leaders who recognise the high cost of workplace stress can tackle each of these problems. Good stress control gives employees a more pleasant and healthier place to work and puts money on the bottom line.

An informal, conversational survey of your own employees can help you identify the major stressors in your organisation. Professional assistance is available to target all of these issues and develop a strategy to overcome the top ten workplace stressors.

Start with the information you can gather on your own, and work your way forward. Employees will appreciate your efforts.

For the guidelines which have now been issued in the UK to improve mental health in the workplace, see -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6502086/Nice-guidelines-on-improving-mental-health-in-the-workplace.html

What Leaders Can Do To Reduce Stress in the Workplace

Why Do Women Leaders Often Get a Poor Press?

If a woman leader shows her strength and assertiveness with no apologies, many will say she is ruthless.

And, if she shows a tear in the corner of her eye, others will wonder if she’s an emotional wreck.

A woman in power struggles constantly with finding an agreeable midpoint: her bosses, employees, or colleagues will call her aggressive when she’s asserting herself. Others will find her style robotic when she’s just focusing on the points she needs to address in an objective way. Assertiveness, strategic approaches, and focused actions have been leadership qualities that are more traditionally attributed to males.

Instead, many people feel more comfortable around women with a more traditionally female-style: a woman who smiles and mediates discord, a woman who will back off and never come off too strong in an argument, even if her point remains vague, or a woman who will show her sensitivity and seem to empathise with everyone’s feelings in spite of not getting the job done.

A strong woman in power will maximise her position, asserting herself in the key issues, addressing them at the core and yet, she will be aware and connected with her audience, listening to their stories, empathising with their challenges, and proposing the commitment to help them out in every possible way.

After all, for all of us looking up to them, all we want is someone who will take care of business, focusing their time in resolving issues rather than in trying to destroy their opponent, someone who knows both because of thorough knowledge and experience and someone who cares.

Great leaders, both male and female, will connect in this way to get things done.

Why Do Women Leaders Often Get a Poor Press?

General Colin Powell Receives American Patriot of Character Award

General Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State, received the American Patriot of Character Award presented by The Character Education Partnership during their 16th annual National Forum on Character Education, in Alexandria, VA, last week.

The American Patriot of Character Award honours one American citizen whose leadership exemplifies the very best of the nation's founding principles. The award recognises individuals not only for great success in their chosen field, but also for upholding the highest ethical standards in service of the common good.

"General Powell is a remarkable public servant who has truly made a positive difference in our nation," CEP's executive director Joe Mazzola said. "He is a shining example of integrity for young people, and all American citizens, to emulate. We are honoured to have him as the first recipient of this award."

In his acceptance remarks Powell talked about his family's emphasis on good character and achievement. He said a turning point in his life came about when he entered the ROTC program in college, and it emphasised West Point's code of ethics.

General Powell also congratulated the National Schools of Character award winners who were in attendance to receive their awards. He commended the educators for their efforts to develop students of good character.

The purpose of the National Schools of Character awards programme is to identify, honour, and showcase exemplars in character education and facilitate their leadership in mentoring others. The goal of the national program is to provide a variety of models of comprehensive, quality character education, representing America's diverse educational system.

Here are General Powell's 13 Rules of Leadership:

General Colin Powell Receives American Patriot of Character Award

Why Leadership Depth Matters in an Organisation

When it comes to leadership bench strength, some company benches are dangerously light. These companies, from large corporations to small and mid-sized businesses, lack the talent needed to sustain or grow the business beyond its current level. Some companies have depended on the same leaders for years without developing new leaders. Other companies have attempted to develop leaders, but there is no strategic or integrated approach. Still other companies have unexpectedly lost leaders they were counting on.

Each year, about 25 percent of US managers in typical mid-sized companies change jobs. Most spend an average of four years in a given position. High potential leaders in mid-senior ranks move more frequently: every two to three years. These statistics demonstrate why companies must build solid leadership. Leaders must concentrate on developing their teams, getting the right people in the right jobs and producing results. Good leadership also influences a person’s decision to remain with a company.

Here are ten ideas for building your leadership pool:

1. Transfer knowledge and experience from the top

Companies can capture the wisdom from experienced leaders to aid in educating and developing future leaders.

2. Build relationships across generations

Leadership skills, talents and values differ across generations. Dealing with these differences constructively strengthens the overall leadership of your organisation.

3. Strengthen leadership peer relationships

Often, large organisations operate like a conglomeration of silos. It’s easy for leaders to feel isolated in their roles. Helping leaders learn from each other and strengthening interpersonal relationships build needed peer support and camaraderie.

4. Develop succession plans

Companies shouldn’t wait until the need for a leader is obvious. Careful thought and planning in advance eases the transition.

5. Identify and nurture high-potential leaders

Pay special attention to those employees possessing strong capabilities operating below the radar. They can be the most likely to leave.

6. Provide needed cross departmental learning and exposure

With better knowledge of other departments and the organisational system as a whole, leaders can help your departments function more effectively.

7. Offer executive coaching/real-time learning

Large companies are turning to fresh approaches to help executives learn, get feedback and gain support based on experiential learning. Many executives like the personalised approach.

8. Include more leaders in strategic planning

One of the most common challenges faced by leaders is the need to think and act more strategically. Busy executives struggle to find the time to think about the issues they most want or care about. Their focus is diffused. Fostering strategic thinking early in a leader’s career will serve him or her well in the future.

9. Provide mentoring or coaching support for new managers

Along with a new title and pay raise, new managers should benefit by having stronger initial support through mentoring or coaching programs to help them get acclimated in their new roles.

10. Assess leadership talent

There are a variety of assessments in the marketplace to help companies assess leadership skills, behaviours and values. These tools give leaders insights to help them increase their effectiveness.

Why Leadership Depth Matters in an Organisation

Operating on Data vs Instinct - An Opportunity for Leaders to Out-Perform?

Until recently, most of the decisions we were called on to make were based on hunches, insight and a little bit of data ie on incomplete information. At some point, standard leadership theory suggests we have to decide that it’s good enough and go ahead with whatever decision we have at hand.

Our ability to still make good decisions even with incomplete information relies on instinct – a sense of what the right decision is that comes from inside. Often, that voice inside of us is built out of a lot of learning about the world, a lot of experience of both success and failure. Learning trains our instincts so that we can make better decisions with less information.

Historically, a leader, in the end, is a person others rely on to make the difficult decisions and set the direction for everyone. A well-honed instinct is key to being that kind of leader, and a good leader relies on and trusts that voice inside of himself.

However, data mining and the proximity of the internet to most of what we do is changing the proximity of proof to decision and perhaps the role of instinct in a leader's decision making. Now, you don't need to do a lot of research, the data is just a click away. So, what are you going to do when your hunches don't match the data that's now pouring in? The data shows, for example, that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving drunk. It doesn't feel that way, of course, but will you respect the data and stop?

It is now clear that many data-driven findings are counter-intuitive but how long it will take leaders to get their arms around this avalanche of insight. Probably longer than most of us think.

Perhaps sport can shows business leaders the way forward and the significant commercial and competitive advantages of basing decisions on more than just instinct? 

When Michael Lewis published Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Gamein 2003, it instantly became one of the most influential books about American sports in a generation. Michael Lewis, normally a financial writer, analysed how baseball’s Oakland A’s managed to consistently produce highly competitive teams despite a payroll that was a fraction of their biggest rivals.

From 1999 -2006, the A’s finished either first or second in their division, and won over 100 games in both 2001 and 2002. They won more games than any team in baseball other than the Yankees during that period, but had one of the smallest payrolls in baseball. The protagonist in Moneyball was A’s general manager Billy Beane, who looked at potential baseball players in a completely different way from other GMs.

From Lewis’ perspective, Beane was doing what any good executive should do – trying to bring rationality to a completely irrational market. Beane saw that the market for high-end free agents was over-inflated, and the rational tools (primarily baseball statistics) for properly valuing players were underutilised. Beane was able to use those tools to find outstanding players that were completely overlooked by other teams at a fraction of their market cost.

In the UK, there is one football manager who has replicated Beane’s unconventional thinking and has consistently produced winning teams for a fraction of what his rivals spend – Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal has finished in the top four every year for the past decade, and under Wenger has collected three Championships, six FA Cups, and went undefeated for the 2003-2004 EPL season. He has done this while spending a small fraction of what his rivals have spent in the transfer market. If you add up all of Wenger's spending since he joined the team in 1996 and subtract his sales in the transfer market over that time, his net expenditures are £17 million – less than £2 million per year.

(For more on the Wenger approach, see - http://www.epltalk.com/arsene-wenger%E2%80%99s-moneyball-strategy/12292 )

Maybe now is the time for hard pressed leaders to re-evaluate the role of instinct in decision making as they seek to win in the new post-recession environment?

Operating on Data vs Instinct - An Opportunity for Leaders to Out-Perform?

Gavin Hastings joins the Board of Positive Leadership Limited

We are delighted to announce that Gavin Hastings OBE has agreed to join the Board of Positive Leadership Limited in an executive capacity.

Gavin brings his direct experience of leading successful teams at the highest level of world rugby, as well as his business expertise in the sports marketing and event management arenas, to the advisory and consulting work of Positive Leadership.

The vision of Positive Leadership - to help leaders excel under pressure - is communicated by drawing extensively on lessons from the elite sporting environment. As such, Gavin will play a significant role in assisting our domestic and international clients, in both the business and sporting worlds.

Gavin was previously the all time record points scorer for Scotland. He won 61 caps for his country, captaining the national team 20 times. He captained The British & Irish Lions during the 1993 tour to New Zealand. He also captained Cambridge University in the 1985 Varsity match. He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2003.

Lions coach, Ian McGeechan said of Gavin; ‘...his greatest asset was to engender confidence in those around him and to lead by example when the opposition had to be taken on.’

Positive Leadership's advisory and consulting services include: leadership advice in the areas of business strategy, M&A, capital raising, talent development and performing under pressure; and leadership consulting in the areas of coaching, mentoring, executive education, training and keynote speaking.

Gavin Hastings joins the Board of Positive Leadership Limited

Brett Favre's Lessons on Leadership

Brett Favre is a 40 year old American football quarterback who now plays for the Minnesota Vikings. He was the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers between 1992 and 2007 and for the New York Jets in 2008.

He became the Packers' starting quarterback in the fourth game of the 1992 season, starting every game from then until his retirement in 2008. In 2008, Favre came out of retirement, was traded to the New York Jets, and continued his consecutive start streak. On February 11, 2009, Favre told the New York Jets that he was again retiring. He came out of retirement for the second time and signed with the Minnesota Vikings on August 18, 2009. This year, the Vikings are 7-1.

Favre is the only player to win the AP Most Valuable Player three consecutive times (1995–97). He led the Packers to two Super Bowl appearances, winning one (Super Bowl XXXI).

He holds many NFL records including: most career touchdown passes, most career passing yards, most career pass completions, most career pass attempts, most career interceptions thrown, most consecutive starts, and most career victories as a starting quarterback.

When asked about how he defines leadership, he says:

“It’s somehow getting 52 other guys to raise their level of play. To get them to believe in what we’re trying to do. You do that by setting an example, by doing things the right way. I’ve always shown up, I’ve always been prepared, I practice every day. I practice hard. I study. No matter what happens on the field, I never point blame at anybody else. Everything I do comes back to leadership, the example I want to set.”

Brett Favre's Lessons on Leadership

The Means of Expression are the Steps to Leadership

According to US scholar, Warren Bennis, who is widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies, the means of expression are the steps to leadership. In other words, it all begins with reflecting on your successes and failures and building from there:

1. Reflection leading to resolution.

2. Resolution leading to perspective.

3. Perspective leading to point of view.

4. Point of view leading to tests and measures.

5. Tests and measures leading to desire.

6. Desire leading to mastery.

7. Mastery leading to strategic thinking.

8. Strategic thinking leading to full self-expression.

9. The synthesis of full self-expression = leadership.

The Means of Expression are the Steps to Leadership

Leaders Must Take Risks

The act and practice of leadership is a risky undertaking. Leadership is the act of bringing about positive change. This requires leaders to initiate, to blaze new trails, to venture into the unknown and unexplored terrain. All of this entails risk. Kouzes and Posner in their bestselling book, The Leadership Challenge (JB Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner) describe it this way:

“Leaders are pioneers – people who are willing to step out into the unknown. They are people who are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in order to find new and better ways of doing things.”

Leaders take these risk because they have a vision, they see a future and a new world that inspires action and makes the risk worthwhile. Leaders are pioneers… not settlers. Great leaders take risk. They push past the edge of their current reality. Striving to bring their vision into today. How about you?

• Are you a pioneer or a settler?
• Are you taking the necessary risks to find better ways of doing things?

Leaders Must Take Risks

Working with Top Performers to Improve the Team

While LeBron James is a superstar in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ organisation, everyone can think of a standout employee in their own business. The question is, as a manager, how do you coach and work with this player to make him or her better?

Cleveland Cavaliers General Manager Danny Ferry offers his advice about how to coach your best to be better:

“My thought of how we coach the best is, for example with LeBron, being honest with him — whether he had a good game or bad game — being compassionate and trying to do things right, night in and night out,” Ferry says.

It’s important to treat your standout just like the others on the team, and that message should also be communicated to that person.

“...this is something that (Cavaliers Head Coach Mike Brown) talked to LeBron [about] — ‘You’re going to have to allow me to be hard on you, and you have to allow me to coach you because everybody else is looking,’” Ferry says. “You have to have that level of trust and communication with your star player and say, ‘I’m going to get on you, and I’m not always going to be right, but it’s important for our culture and important for our team to see that I’m willing to jump your butt more than anybody else.’”

Doing this shows the rest of your employees that you recognise the top performer isn’t perfect. For example, during Cavs film sessions, Ferry says that while the staff uses all of the players’ mistakes, James’ are on there more than anyone else’s.

It’s also crucial that you don’t elevate a bad apple to stardom. “Ultimately, your superstar has to have character for it to really work,” Ferry says. “That person having solid character is hugely important to the potential success for the whole organisation. With solid character, the rest of your organisation will try to emulate that behaviour.

While it’s important to build up your best person, you also have to be careful of depending on them too much, which is something that, like all managers, Brown has had to work at with his team.

“It’s hard because [James] is such a good player,” Ferry says. “We want to say, ‘Hey, here’s the ball, OK?’ and he can make things happen, but staying with it and putting him more on the back end has been one of Mike’s focuses, and the offense has moved better.”

On top of that, Ferry says the team has done better this past year at playing well when James is out than it has in the past, which wouldn’t have happened if Brown focused only on James.

“It’s a balance, and Mike Brown has to have the credibility to say, ‘Hey, I’m putting us in the best position to win,’” Ferry says.

As the leader, it’s important to utilise your best people to leverage the team, but it’s also important to explain why your star was or wasn’t placed on a project. Doing this fosters trust and builds stronger communication between manager and employee, and Ferry says Brown does this with his players.

“He’s very honest and open upfront, ‘This is going on, this is going on — I’m going to play you, but this is what I expect, or I’m not going to play you because of these issues,’” Ferry says. “If you communicate afterward, it makes it more challenging because there isn’t as much trust.”

Balancing all of this with everything else you have to worry about as a manager can seem tough, but Ferry boils it down to the fundamentals.

“Whatever it is, you have to win people over with honesty, caring and character, and you have to be consistent — and doing those things consistently.”

Working with Top Performers to Improve the Team

What is the key to building a successful corporate culture?

Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. Its unique culture starts with a motto: "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." One of its remarkable policies is to permit every employee to spend up to $2,000 making any single guest satisfied.

Here is what Simon Cooper, who has led Ritz-Carlton for the past eight years, says about building corporate culture:

'A culture is built on trust. And if leadership doesn't live the values that it requires of the organisation, that is the swiftest way to undermine the culture. No culture sticks if it's not lived at the highest levels of the organisation. It takes an extraordinarily long time to build a culture.'

For more, see - http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/30/simon-cooper-ritz-leadership-ceonetwork-hotels.html

What is the key to building a successful corporate culture?

Leadership is like conducting an orchestra

What does a young debut conductor need to know as she steps up on to the podium, looking out at all those expectant, demanding faces? It seems that a maestro and an executive face very similar challenges and that what helps on the podium can help in the corner office.

• Have a clear and vibrant vision for your people's success

Leaders who have not yet done the hard work of imagining a best-case scenario for their organisations will inevitably default to leading through correction and criticism. But when your highest priority is developing the right goals and strategy, you will spend most of your time inspiring people about them and guiding them towards successful achievement.

• Listen carefully to your people

A maestro listens "microscopically" to the orchestra. She uses the special perspective of her podium to take in both the big picture and the relevant details. In her imagination she juxtaposes the reality of the orchestra's playing with her best-case vision of how they might sound. Subtracting one from the other shows the crucial gap she needs to narrow or even eliminate. Armed with this knowledge she can focus the organisation's attention on those few crucial points.

• Translate your agenda into directions that can easily be understood and executed by the players

It is a major accomplishment to devise the right goals, but that is no guarantee they will be achieved. Only your workforce can accomplish that, and the leader and the worker will have vastly different understandings of the vision. The leader's understanding is based on the pressing strategic needs, as seen from the podium. The worker's view is shaped by the chair he occupies, where the big-picture view of the organisation is very much in the distant background. So the leader needs to translate the vision so that it makes sense from every chair. The workforce cannot act effectively until the leader expresses directions and assignments in the language they understand.

• It's not about you. It's about how the orchestra sounds under your direction.

It's very easy for a conductor to personalise the orchestra's behaviour and see it as reflection on him or his abilities. But the orchestra is not nearly so concerned with what a conductor does or says as they are with how they sound. Therefore sharpen your focus on simply getting the best results, and don't get distracted by interpersonal dynamics.

For more, see - http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/guestinsights/2009/10/leadership-secrets-from-a-maestro.html

Leadership is like conducting an orchestra