The Fires of the Forge

The Seven Capacities of Leadership Overview--Part 4

Otis' note: I have to say Leadership Capacity 4 Be Inclusive has gotten away from me. Don't worry, we will get to the last three capacities. But the next three posts will be on the important subject of Inclusiveness. Stay with me: and if you find what I am writing about here useful, I do hope you will pass it along...

Let’s continue with Leadership Capacity 4 Be Inclusive.

In my prior post regarding this capacity I was writing about separativeness as a way of helping you begin to understand what inclusiveness is.

What is separative leadership? It is the opposite of inclusive leadership. And what does it mean to be inclusive?

Inclusiveness, in a nutshell, means that you are so highly attuned to the interconnectedness of everyone and everything around you, to all of life in fact, that you become incapable of taking an action contrary to the whole.

There is a very strong tie between inclusiveness and the humility that Jim Collins describes in Good to Great as Level Five leadership: humble leaders have the empathetic, intuitive capacity to sense all of life and the interconnectedness of the whole. In the personality style assessments we do for leaders as part of our work with them, this shows up as the Aesthetic value. Top flight CEO's possess that as the fourth value, whereas others have it as the bottom value.

To become inclusive requires mastery of the ego. The ego is not bad, but when it is running the show (as it is in most leaders), it is separative and therefore fear-based. This is why becoming emotionally intelligent—possessing self knowledge—is the most important thing you can do to break through your current limitations (the lid) and go to the next level of leadership.

Let’s look at a current example: the difference between the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama. McCain went down the path of playing the fear card, which is separative. He attempted to cover it by selecting Sarah Palin, a female, to make himself appear inclusive. But the net is his campaign was run on fear and based on fear.

There were enough people in the United States who, at some level, know that working from fear is taking us down as a country. This country was founded on courage, not fear. It was founded on inclusiveness (send us your cold, hungry and down-trodden), not separativeness. Colin Powell summed it up in his endorsement of Obama when he said that his endorsement was because of “the inclusiveness” of Obama’s campaign.

But in real life terms, how do we see inclusiveness at work? It means you draw out the best in every single person around you, no matter whether you like them or not. It means you can separate a person’s behavior from their potential and respond to both at the same time. In short, it means you have the capacity to be ruthlessly honest and unconditionally supportive concurrently.

What is ruthless honesty + unconditional support? You say all that needs to be said (ruthlessly honest) in a manner that enables the other to use your feedback to evolve (unconditionally supportive). I am not talking about being “nice” here. Honest feedback, even when delivered supportively, often feels very harsh to the other person’s ego. But everyone else can see that it is truly supportive, that you are confronting the brutal facts while at the same time pulling for that person to grow and evolve.

Ruthless honesty without unconditional support is brutality. Unconditional support without ruthless honesty is a soggy, gooey mess tantamount to entropy and inertia. This balance is one of the most difficult to strike, but when you do, the very essence of life is at your command. Three posts from now, you will see that in the words of the greatest leader of all time. In the next post, however, we will look at an intensely practical example I have seen in virtually every leader I have worked with or known, including my self.

Recommendation: Tribes by Seth Godin

Okay, so packing up the house last week, closing, managing the crew who loaded the 26 foot Penske, and then driving it from Santa Fe to Salt Lake City took it out of me. I am giving myself some time to recover this Thanksgiving week, and to be with my family who have flown in from GA and CA as well as those who live here in Salt Lake City.

On my drive through the desert, I listened to a book that I believe is a must read. Maybe that is because I am going through a personal metamorphosis, I don't know. But you can rest assured I will be recommending it to every client I support. I don't care whether you are a Chairman of the Board, a CEO or an informal leader in your community or team, I recommend this book. In fact, stop what you are reading, and read this book. What's the book? And why do I recommend it?

If you have read the posts on this blog related to the purpose of this blog, you are clear I have a passion for a particular subject: the current form of leadership is dying. You know that I believe with every fiber of my being that leadership has taken profit, people and planet in the wrong direction... towards a state of imbalance. And you know that I believe that you and I cannot stand for that. And that if we do, we are no more than paper warriors.

So I pay attention when I see things in the mainstream media that indicate my belief is catching on. And seeing it we are. The book Tribes--We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin, a seminal thinker and thought leader in business today, is such a book. It is not a how to book. It is a what-is-happening-and-you-need-to-understand-the-impact-of-this-book. I've included a link to it below.

If you at some level believe that leadership must change in order for the imbalances in this world of ours to be corrected, read (or listen to) Tribes. I will be commenting more on this book later, because it reflects a theme in several books I am reading now. The theme is something I want you to know about and to look at for your self and in your self.

If you are planning for 2009, use Tribes as a non-linear precursor for your normally linear planning process. Read it (it is a short book and an easy read) and allow it to work on your perception, and therefore your planning process and the goals you develop. I will write more about this later, but right now my most immediate act of leadership is to go take my incredible parents for a walk in the park and then to a slow lunch. I only get to see them every so often, and they are 75 now, and my number one priority at this moment is to be present with with them.

Don't worry, I will resume posting about the seven capacities of leadership soon. Stay tuned for that.

Personal Update: On the Move

I won't be posting again until Monday, as my beautiful wife, Sara, and I are on the moving house. I will look forward to posting again next week.

The Seven Capacities of Leadership Overview--Part 3

So if you have been following along you now know the first three leadership capacities I believe will be critical for remaining relevant as a leader: 1. Shift Perception; 2. Point Out a Clear Direction; and, 3. Have a Plan. Well, now you need to know about Capacity Four. Fasten your chin strap: this one’s a doozie. It will take me two posts to cover it.

Leadership Capacity 4: Be Inclusive. It is hard to know where to even start with this one.

If you are going to be relevant as a leader in the not-so-distant future, your role will be to release the collective intelligence of the tribe that forms around you. That is a loaded statement. I ask you to re-read it. Here’s the load.

First, do you know what “collective intelligence” is? Second, why did I chose the word “release” rather than develop, inspire, or some such? Third, why did I use the word “tribe”? Fourth, why did I choose the phrase “that forms around you?” Fifth, how could I possibly be so arrogant as to tell you that if you don’t master all that you will no longer be “relevant as a leader?” Within my self-imposed 500 word limit, there is simply no way I can get to all that.

Here’s the skinny. The current form of leadership you’ve been taught is separative in nature, somewhere between command-and-control and a benevolent dictatorship. Listen, let’s call a spade a shovel, shall we? The vast majority of leaders think they are not doing leadership like that, but honestly, what would we see if you and I were to do a cultural assessment, employee satisfaction survey and we looked at how your group handles conflict and creativity? Ninty-seven out of a hundred times I would find separative leadership. Ninty-seven out of a hundred times I’d find tremendous waste of time, people, ideas and money. I wouldn’t find inclusiveness, I’d find well-intentioned, benevolent separativeness.

So are you separative, or inclusive? It isn't all or nothing. It is a matter of degree. Here's the litmus test.

When you are under fire, do you become increasingly intense, controlling, harsh, or experience some other negative internal state? And does that internal state translate into any form of  counterproductive behavior(s)? Yes, right? I am drilling you on this because we all want to be judged on our intentions, but what matters is our behaviors, our results.

So I don't care much at all about your intentions, and I won't cut you any slack when you are under pressure. Anyone can be a warrior when there is no war. Anyone can be inclusive in easy circumstances. But if you cannot carry the force of inclusiveness into the worst of situations--if you don't possess that level of self knowledge--then you do not possess the capacity of inclusiveness. Instead, you only show flashes of the potential of inclusiveness. And that will not be enough. Don't delude your self otherwise, nor indulge in judging your self on your intentions. That will get you nowhere.

In our next blog, we will look at the difference between separativeness and inclusiveness, and we will put a wrap on Leadership Capacity 4: Be Inclusive.

The Seven Capacities of Leadership Overview--Part 2

Let's continue from the prior post and look at the second and third capacities of the new form of leadership arising. We've covered Capacity 1: Shift Perception. That is the gateway to the the remaining six leadership capacities.

Leadership Capacity 2. Point Out the Direction—Most leaders I know think they are pointing out a clear direction: fact is, they are not. They have lots of thoughts. And they think about direction, and they think about pointing out a direction. But they don't, really. I can ask three simple questions and find out where a leader is with the clarity of his or her direction.

Lack of pointing out a clear direction creates tremendous confusion and wasted time and effort. It happens first in the leader's mind, and then is reflected in the actions of the people around them trying to support that (lack of) direction. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said like this. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” In this ADHD world we live in, true direction is rare. And it is essential. Why? Because we are literally inundated with things vying for our attention.

I hope you have thought, too, about why I put Shift Perception before Point Out the Direction. Here's a hint: Most people are headed off in the wrong direction because they believe in their mind they know where to go. They have no idea that most of what they think is nothing more than social conditioning and habitual reactions arising from flawed assumptions and beliefs and an uncontained ego. But direction is a matter of feeling, and feeling is correlated to fluidity of perception.

Okay, so now you have a clear direction, and you have pointed it out (that means clearly communicated it, folks) to the people who are trying to support you in getting there. And the direction is a good one because you've learned how to feel and not simply stay stuck in your mind. And you can do that because you've learned to Shift Perception. Now what?

Leadership Capacity 3. Plan the Journey—Most leaders think they have worked out how they are going to "get there." (Of course, that is nigh impossible if haven't pointed out the direction.) And most leaders fall into one of two camps: those who believe thinking about work all the time constitutes a plan, and those who believe a plan is more powerful than planning.

The first camp is full of folks who think they have a plan because they think about their work all the time (which is an absolute waste of time). But there really is not a tangible plan. Meaning written. Or at least with the very next action clearly defined at all times. What we really have in this camp are folks with hyperactive minds who believe that just because they've thought it (about a million times) that it will become a reality. Even though they don't have a plan. An Irish proverb captures the essence of these campers very well. “You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”

The other camp are very happy campers—except when they are frustrated. They have a plan. Yes. Beautiful, documented plans. But many of them never act. They perpetually plan. Or even if they do act, they are also frustrated because the x-factor of life keeps affecting that plan. Result? Frustration.

To rigidly hold on to a plan as life happens and provides feedback is just about as bad than not having a plan at all. Eisenhower said it well when he said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

Ponder on that, and we will get to the other seven capacities in short order. I am enjoying sharing this with you. When you have all the pieces (the seven capacities) in view, I think this framework will make a lot of sense to you.

And when you have all the capacities developed, I think your leadership will be at the next level and that you will be very surprised at who you become and what you become capable of achieving. And that is why I am here, blogging with you. Because I think you have that in you, and I think I have something that just might be useful to you in your journey. I am becoming ever more clear about how to share it.

Next stop, leadership capacties four and five.

The Seven Capacities of Leadership Overview--Part 1

I’ve been working on the outline for my book. I haven’t named the book yet. I think the name will come to me as the words come through me. But I have become increasingly clear on what I will write in my first book. It will be a relatively simple book, providing the context of the intensely practical process I have developed to help a leader reach the next level of leadership. I have a lot to write about regarding leadership and how to actually develop emotional intelligence as a leader, so future volumes will flesh out the details, techniques, processes, etc. that I have to share. The first book will be the bare-bones, zen-like framework upon which further books will hinge.

The framework will cover the seven leadership capacities I think you and I will need to develop in order to be relevant as leaders in the future. In addition to describing the seven capacities, however, I will also provide direction on how to develop the capacity by working on leadership skills and emotional intelligence.

A given capacity may involve developing a skill, or developing deeper emotional intelligence, or both. Therefore, along with the framework of my approach you will find one suggestion for developing the leadership skill related to that capacity. And you will find one suggestion for developing the emotional intelligence that activates and amplifies that capacity. Lastly, you will see a high-level discussion of how the leadership skill and the emotional intelligence revolve together around that capacity. I get excited just writing here to you about it. I haven't seen another book like it--that is (1) intensely practical, (2) imminently actionable, (3) imparts a feeling, and (4) is not overwhelming in detail.

I’d like to share a little bit about the seven leadership capacities over the next couple of posts. I’d like to touch upon the first three here. I will only provide a brief description, and a quotation to impart a feeling.

1. Shift Perception—I am becoming increasingly convinced that the most important self knowledge capacity a leader can develop is to learn to shift his or her perception at will. The reason is that you cannot see possibly see the truly creative solutions today’s problems require and tomorrow’s issues will demand if you are stuck in the same old perception. Einstein captured this beautifully when he said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

But most people do not understand what Einstein was imparting here. They keep trying to pour more information into their brains. That does not change the level of thinking, it only gives one more to think about. To change the level of thinking a leader must learn to shift their own perception at will, and most leaders don't know what that means, much less how to do it.

This perspective on perception be one of the most important contributions I believe I will make to the leadership literature. And that is why, when I first opened this blog, I posted a series of posts on my journey and how I learned to work with my own perception and gain the clarity I possess. You can read those posts by clicking on the Category called My Journey.

Tomorrow, we will look at leadership capacities 2 and 3.

Leadership: Time and Timing--Conclusion

We began this string of posts on time and timing by looking at the presidential election, and what you can learn about it as a leader. We can end where we began by looking at it this way. Barack Obama harnessed time and timing.

The timing of things is that the world is becoming increasingly imbalanced, and we know it. The timing of things is that we are being controlled by fear, and we know it. The timing of things is that we have tried separativeness and that inclusiveness is the answer, and we know it. The timing of things is that for 2,000 years we have been looking for the answers outside of ourselves and the answers cannot be found there, and we know it. The timing of things is that we now must accept our personal responsibility and claim our individual power, and we know it.

And Barack Obama was at the right time, at the right place, to align a message with what we all know, consciously or unconsciously. I am not saying that he can do any of this, and that we should be elated and joyful, and that McCain would have been worse for us at this time. But, like it or not, Barack Obama sensed the timing of all this, he aligned with it, and he won.

Obama also seized the element of time. He (and David Plouffe) ran the most effective campaign in history. His doing was impeccable. Look: (1) He clearly articulated a message again and again that moved the majority of Americans’ hearts; (2) He designed and executed a campaign process with precision that would shame a lot of businesses; and (3) he developed friends in high places. (BTW, those three observations are by Jack Welch, not me. I just agree with them.)

In his left hand he held timing (evolving), in his right he held time (doing). And he is now president. Like I said, I am not saying he’s the right man for the job, that he can get the job done or that he can withstand the incredible temptation that comes with tremendous power and come out the other side with an unimpeached character. I am saying, however, that he aligned his message with the timing of life and his actions with the time he had.

There are lessons for you and for me in that. Think about it, and begin to ask yourself as much about the timing of what you are doing as the time it will take. Ask as much about the meaning you are putting into something as you daydream about the meaning you think you will get through doing it. And most of all realize that you need to have a belief about the meaning of life in order to feel like you are on purpose. And consider that, perhaps, that purpose is evolution.

Perhaps the act of leadership is nothing more than becoming a person who enables evolution to happen through the forms you create. As a leader you have an opportunity of epic proportion—every act you take, every form you build, every person you affect, every client you affect, every business you build, can become a portal through which life evolves. I hope you will consider this, and, if it makes sense to you, that you take this task and opportunity very seriously. It is a gateway to where leadership is headed, whereas most will linger a little too long where leadership has been.

Current Affairs: The Next Freight Train

I was talking with the president of a large and growing healthcare company today. We were speaking of the turnover that occurs in the staff of Medicare that occurs when an administration changes (about 50% of the people in that very large organization will pack their boxes).

That led to conversation of the trillion dollar financial bailout. Then he paused, and said that most Americans think that we dodged that freight train. Then he paused again and said, "I wonder if we are ready for the next freight train behind that one. It is bigger--and it is called Medicare and Social Security."

Here's an eight minute clip from the TV show 60 Minutes where Andy Court interviews the Comptroller General of the US's GAO, David Walker. He's our country's CFO. It is called Wake Up Call. I consider it a must see for the informed leader.

Leadership: Time and Timing--Part 3

One of the ways leaders try to make sense of or to find meaning in life is through accomplishing things—a goal, a promotion, a profit target, or whatever. When we believe that accomplishing something will provide a sense of purpose or meaning or soothe our angst, we have missed the mark. Yet, so many leaders pursue that path of doing.

Don't get me wrong: Doing is a wonderful, incredible thing. But most folks I know are operating under a misguided notion that if they do a certain thing, or if they do something well, or if they can do something better than others, then what they do will provide them with a sense of meaning. This is backasswards thinking.

You have to put meaning into what you do. Then what you do has meaning. It doesn’t happen the other way around. It may, for a time, but that will pass. You will grow tired of it, or it will grow tired of you, and the meaning of a goal accomplished has a relatively short half-life. You know the common refrain--what have you done for me lately?

But if you put meaning into what you do, what you do is free to change continually because you are not attached to your doing. You will no longer cling to what you do, because you will have realized that your doing that particular thing is not giving you meaning. You can do anything, and put meaning in to it. That is powerful.

So how does this relate to time and timing, you ask? Where are you taking this, Otis? The honest answer is, I haven’t a clue. I am typing and I myself am not certain what is trying to be expressed. So I will keep typing and we will both find out.

If you are doing something primarily because doing it will provide you with meaning (or will when you accomplish it in the future), you are working solely in the context of time. “I’ve got to do this by this particular time.” This is the focus of most business people today. Therefore, we are constantly being driven by the belief that we are running out of time.

And yet, on the other hand, the reason we don’t accomplish many of our most important goals is because we believe we have more time—there’s always tomorrow. Do you not find that hilarious? We are constantly flogging ourselves forward because we are running out of time, and yet continually putting off what is most important to us (very often "until we retire") because we think we will have more time. I don't know about you, but I'd classify that as potentially dysfunctional.

However, if you are putting meaning into what you are doing, you are working with the force of timing. Time is static in nature. It is a "thin slice" of a continuum that has no beginning and no end. Comedian George Carlin said, "Time is something we created to keep everything from happening a once." Timing is dynamic. Timing is more like a wave of possibility.

Let's look at Christ for an example. Christ lived in human form during a particular historical time. That is static. It had a defined beginning and end. But because he put meaning into his every doing, he activated something—sounded a note if you will—that resonates even today and could be said to contribute to that which we call timing.

In short, his physical life occurred in time. Yet when he appeared was correlated to the right timing for his appearance, and further he added to that timing by sounding a wave of possibility that has lasted 2,000 years. Because of this, timing is inextricably correlated to that which could be called the Christ Principle (a dynamic) as opposed to the life (and death) of Christ, which, in physical terms, was time, was static.

So as you master your self as a person and as a leader, as you learn to be as sensitive to timing as you are to time, then you are beginning to infuse your doing (time) with the entire evolutionary dynamic of life, the Christ Principle. You can answer the call, so to speak, when you work with both time and timing (which at some point will lead us to talk about the power of intent, something leaders can learn a lot more about.)

The long and the short of it is, if you want to amplify the effect of your results beyond any possible frame of reference, align your actions to correspond with timing. You will then find the possibilities truly divine!

Hey, Otis here. I will now return from left field. Sometimes I wonder out there, but I always come back. Yet perhaps to some of you that imparted a feeling.

I will wrap this theme of time and timing up in the next post by bringing it back to Barack Obama, and what we can learn from what he accomplished. That will be a little more pragmatic, for whether you hung in there with me on the Christ Principle thing or not, the lessons of Barack Obama are quite pragmatic for any leader.

Leadership: Time and Timing--Part 2

I believe that in order for a leader’s life and work to feel purposeful, that leader must have found the (a) meaning of life. I do not know how it can be any other way. There are lots of folks more than willing to guide you into finding your purpose—lots of books, seminars, workshops, etc. Right?

Have you considered the absurdity of looking for your life purpose if you have not reached your own understanding of the meaning of life? That is like trying decide what sporting goods you need to pack for your vacation when you haven’t decided where you are going on vacation, what you want to get out of that vacation, who is going with you on vacation, whether you want to play sports on vacation, and if so, what sports are available to you there.

What is the meaning of life? None of us, I guess, can truly know. We certainly can have strong beliefs about it, but is it possible to unequivocally know beyond all shadow of a doubt? I don’t think so, but tell me if I am wrong. So, we must make one up, I suppose. And perhaps making up that meaning should be based on some observation of what we are seeing over time. What can you see, my friend?

I see a planet that appears to revolve, and life that appears to evolve. And what else do I see? I see a continual conflict, a conflict between the light and the darkness, between love and fear, between oppression and liberation. What else? Relationships, relationships everywhere.

So what can I surmise about the meaning of life? That it moves. That the movement seems to be an evolution. That the evolution tends to revolve around friction and evolve through relationships. So, to me, life (and therefore leadership, which is simply a part of life) is about evolution.

So if your leadership actions are not inherently tied to fostering evolution, you will never consciously tap into the power of timing. All you will have to work with is time, and you will lead with a significant disadvantage compared to those leaders who are now developing a sense of what timing is.

So what does this have to do anything, Otis? Well, in prior posts we’ve talked about the inner angst, and how it is related to an unresolved wound. But there is another source of the angst, and it seems to be the insatiable desire of the human being to find a sense of completion, of fulfillment, of peace, to end the feeling of lacking something we cannot quite put our fingers on.

Just as a baby’s cry has the undeniable and uncannily powerful effect of stirring the mother to notice and to act, so our inner angst spurs us to evolve. Without that drive to evolve, new lands wouldn’t be discovered, new markets would not be tapped, paradigms would not be broken and oppressive regimes (and bosses, you've had one) would never be toppled. All gets swept up in the wave of evolution, and your purpose is to engage in it and your leadership is about using that wave to translate vision into reality in a way that uplifts people and positively affects life itself.

But we have lost our way in that. So many leaders have misplaced their angst, and further, have misinterpreted what will soothe that angst. Nothing will make it go away, I suppose, for to be a human being is to feel a lack of something. But you can understand the meaning of it, and you can participate in it, and therefore it you can find it very purposeful. And herein lies a need to understand time and timing.

More on that in the next post.