Many of you are probably fans of TEDTalks, the pithy online videos of outstanding presentations. TED is a non-profit organization whose initial focus was on “ideas worth spreading” in three arenas – Technology, Entertainment, and Design, hence TED. Their scope has expanded greatly since their start in 1984. A new program called TEDx provides guidelines for local, self-organized events based on the TED model. Here in the wine country, a team of volunteer leaders organized TEDxSonomaCounty. Many of the organizers are associated with Sonoma Country Day School, where the event was held. The first local TEDx Conference took place on June 16, 2012.

Food for Thought ~

The theme for the symposium was “A Sense of Place.” This topic was addressed by a dozen speakers from a myriad of perspectives. I was delighted to have been there in person, as this is a subject that has long captured my imagination. I have observed the vastly different attitudes, and subsequently different behaviors, people have about the “places” that matter to us ~ where we live, where we’re from, how we relate to the land, our surroundings, the natural and the built environments, our homes and our places of work.

Question for the day ~

What comes up for you as you consider this issue? As a leader, how does a sense of place relate to your work and to your organization?

Happily, TEDxSonomaCounty recently posted videos of their speakers on YouTube. You may want to start with the list of speakers on their website; click here to see which ones might be of particular interest to you. From there you can go to their YouTube channel to watch your picks, or watch them all! Here’s the link.

For me, the TEDx Conference was thought-provoking, educational and inspiring. It was great to attend this inaugural event, and I’m very pleased to share it with you.

Mary

The topic for the past two weeks has been self-awareness, of both our strengths and weaknesses as a leader. As serendipity would have it, a very relevant observation by Stephen Covey, the acclaimed author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, came my way and I am pleased to share it with you.

Food for Thought ~

“In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment – independent will – that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.”
Stephen R. Covey

Question for the day ~

What is your assessment of your “independent will”? Are you able to carry out the decisions, choices and plans you make?

Last weekend I attended an earthquake preparedness workshop. It re-kindled my commitment to serve as a messenger to my clients, friends and associates to please,”Be Prepared.” My column in the North Bay Business Journal is on the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. If you haven’t already done so, please click here to read the article.

Mary

Last week I observed that the best leaders have the self-awareness to understand and manage their strengths and weaknesses. A conscientious leader will use their self-awareness to correct or compensate for whatever strategic weaknesses may be discovered.

Food for Thought ~

Even more important than correcting weaknesses, the best leaders learn to capitalize on their strengths. This is the true gold mine of opportunity. Just as in managing a business, where strategic weaknesses need to be remediated, the great companies are the ones that identify and capitalize upon their distinctive advantages. So it is with leaders. Last week I proposed several methods for leaders who wants to increase their self-awareness: rigorous personal assessment, 360 degree feedback systems, executive coaching, and spiritual practice, just to name a few. These methods equally pertain to developing strengths. Leadership is an occupation that requires a diverse set of skills. Very few people are good at all of them. Identifying and then capitalizing on your special talents, skills, and abilities will take you further faster than muddling along trying to be good at everything.

Question for the day ~

Do you know what your special strengths are as a leader? Have you tailored your work to minimize any weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths?

My recent column in the North Bay Business Journal is on the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. For those of you who haven’t read it yet: please click here to read the article.

Mary

News Flash – Leaders are human. Leaders aren’t perfect.
Yes, this is a tongue-in-cheek statement of the obvious, but I hoped to get your attention and make an important point: oftentimes, leaders, in their accustomed role of being in charge and being good at what they do, may lose sight of the reality that they aren’t in fact good at everything. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and it’s the best leaders who have the self-awareness to recognize, and manage, both sides of this coin.

Food for Thought ~

There are many paths to self-awareness: rigorous personal assessment, 360 degree feedback systems, executive coaching, and spiritual practice, just to name a few. Whatever path, or combination of approaches is used, the goal is a high degree of personal self-knowledge. This is essential if a leader wants to truly maximize his or her effectiveness. Old style command and control type leaders usually can’t tolerate this level of self-awareness, and in fact don’t “need” it in order to simply give orders. But leaders who work from a different premise – that leadership is a collaborative role that requires a diverse set of skills – will find that self-awareness is the necessary foundation.

Question for the day ~

How much time and effort have you committed to increasing your self-awareness? How has it made you a better leader?

My new column in the North Bay Business Journal is on the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. For those of you who haven’t read it yet: please click here to read the article.

Mary

During the 1989 earthquake in Santa Rosa, I was at a meeting in an office that did not have an emergency plan and the leader was the first one out the door. I have a client whose building burned to the ground one night. These are just two personal examples of the things we think won’t happen. In every organization, no matter how large or small, disaster preparedness is relevant. As leaders, we are responsible for planning for the unexpected. It can be easy to put this low on the priority list, but I urge you to resist that inclination. For inspiration and information on this topic, here’s a link to my new column, published last week in the North Bay Business Journal.

Food for Thought ~

… the quality of leadership prior to a crisis depends on foresight and discipline. The quality of leadership during a crisis depends on wisdom and character. In the disaster preparedness realm, the operative word is when, not if. Continue reading the article

Question for the day ~

Does your organization have an up-to-date disaster preparedness plan?

My sincere congratulations if your answer to that question is “yes.” This is one plan I hope you have but never need. Former Girl Scouts may remember that “Be Prepared” was our official motto. (O.K. former Boy Scouts – what was your motto?) Please, be prepared!

Mary

For the past two weeks ago we have been exploring the theme of how leaders can support the introduction of new ideas and encourage employee participation in the leadership function. Here’s a thoughtful and instructive response from Terry Garrett of GoLocal Sonoma County, an organization that promotes building a resilient, thriving, local economy by supporting local, independently owned companies. (Disclosure – I am proud to be a completely biased founding member of this organization.) www.golocal.coop.

Food for Thought from Terry Garrett ~

Over the years I’ve come to favor consciously nurturing ideas via organizational process rather than the informal “planting a seed.” Ideas are the life blood of a organization. They can sink or boost a company and that makes them powerful. As such, ideas require due diligence and open, direct communication among members of a company to vet them and decide which ones to adopt and which ones to avoid. Our company uses a two-stage idea pipeline for quickly assessing ideas to determine which ones go forward to the testing phase, as well as the criteria for the test results. Certainly for small ideas, like changes in schedules or operations, an informal method works well. But above all, open and honest communication about ideas is important.

Question for the day ~

What methods does your organization use to explore, nurture, and test new ideas and encourage employee engagement and involvement?

My new column in the NorthBay Business Journal was published this week. It addresses the subject of emergency preparedness, because it’s a matter of when, not if something will happen, and it’s a leader’s responsibility to be sure his/her organization is prepared. Click here to read the article.

Mary

Last week I invited readers to compare leadership and gardening. I received this thoughtful response from Janet Beazlie ~ a professional landscape gardener. I hope you enjoy her insights.

Food for Thought ~

“A gardener can’t ‘make’ the plants in her garden grow, but she is responsible for creating and maintaining the conditions needed for growth: healthy soil, exposure to light, nourishment and protection from invasive plants and pests. Similarly, a good leader is responsible for providing conditions that are conducive to the changes she wants to make: designing work systems that support such actions, removing barriers, and providing
protection from others who might undermine the changes.

When establishing new plants, the gardener often has to provide hand watering til the plant’s roots are developed and the plant is thriving in the garden. In organizations, in a time of scarce resources, timely delivery of resources is key. So it’s important for operations to receive what they need and thus avoid a crisis. At the same time, the leader needs to recognize that special handling and more frequent communication will be necessary to help new operations become established.”

Question for the day ~

In what way do these analogies between gardening and leadership resonate with you?

This is a great reminder of the critical role that leaders have and underscores the importance of their attentiveness. Thanks, Janet!

Mary

After a recent conversation with a client about the fine points of leadership, I received this very interesting follow-up message:

“I like the concept of covert and overt leadership. I must confess that in my prior positions, I relied heavily on covert leadership. I would define this as seeing direction I believe our organization should be heading or an improvement to a system we should make and finding a way to make it someone else’s idea and then validating this idea. I still practice this and people use these techniques with me as well. Essentially, it’s planting a seed and seeing if it will grow. In upper management positions, I think it is necessary to practice more overt leadership. I believe people in an organization like to know their management can lead. It’s not nearly as much fun as planting seeds and watching them grow, but it’s necessary.”

Food for Thought ~

I have always liked the metaphor that portrays leadership as planting seeds. It’s a classic method of leadership – spreading ideas around and either purposefully nurturing them along, or alternatively, “letting nature take its course” and seeing how the idea evolves… or doesn’t.

Question for the day ~

Do you practice this method of leadership? For those of you who are gardeners, what analogies would you draw between gardening and leadership?

Thanks to all who wrote and called about “reluctant leaders.” That subject seemed to spark significant interest, insight and action.

Mary

Last week’s post on the “reluctant leader phenomenon” seemed to hit home with people who have mixed feelings about their leadership. Here are some of the thoughtful and discerning comments I received.

Food for Thought ~

“I am probably one of those reluctant leaders you talk about. Factors 1 & 2 apply to me. I will investigate further to uncover deeper aspects of these factors. Thanks for pointing them out.”

“I am aware of this pattern and it has followed me for a long time until I understood my role in it.”

“I’m painfully aware of my incapacities. However, that in itself isn’t the biggest problem, it’s the idea I have about it being “wrong” to possess limitations in the position of leadership, and that expresses itself as embarrassment. There are perceived incapacities and real ones. Neither may necessarily keep me from fulfilling a leadership role, but they each require a different sort of treatment to pass through to acceptance. One requires inner work to learn my real motives for creating false or irrelevant issues. The other requires learning self-acceptance for my limits, as well as a practice of honesty and self-acceptance, openly, without embarrassment. The latter is so much more difficult, but full of rich rewards.”

“I’m a reluctant delegator. I feel I’m not worthy to ask others to do things that I either don’t have time to do or don’t wish to do. And, I’m so busy, I don’t take the time to think of how I might be able to delegate…that takes considerable time and thought. Being too busy prevents me from being the strong leader that I am capable of being, and, more importantly, the process is exhausting and then I hide behind the negative result.”

“I would respectfully like to submit a 5th alternative: burnout (running on an empty gas tank from doing too much). It can happen to any and all of us if we don’t watch ourselves and try to do everything.”

Thank you, readers, for these insights. Self-awareness and self-acceptance are key to addressing this issue. If it applies to you, please do so, because effective leaders are needed everywhere I look – families, communities, organizations and beyond. Begin wherever you are.

Mary

I recently observed two different situations that illustrate what I call the “reluctant leader phenomenon.” Although the two individuals are clearly natural leaders, they seem ambivalent about being leaders. They definitely have a number of leadership qualities, and they have followers. Yet they seem reluctant to fully embrace their leadership roles.

Food for Thought ~

As a result, they are only partially effective as leaders, and this may be a Catch 22 situation. Their hesitance to fully commit results in less than optimal outcomes which may in turn reinforce their ambivalence about leadership. To be sure, being a leader can be a daunting prospect and does require a multi-faceted set of skills. Yet someone who has willing followers (people who look to him/her for leadership) clearly has some strong leadership qualities. Here’s my hypothesis, with the caveat that of course this doesn’t cover all the possible factors. These natural leaders may have: 1.) a limiting belief about themselves or about leadership, 2.) a fear of some aspect of leadership, 3.) an unresolved values conflict, or 4.) some combination of the above. These factors then inhibit them from fully accepting (and enjoying) their gifts as natural leaders.

Question for the day ~

Do you consider yourself a reluctant leader? If so, what thoughts and insights might you have on this subject?

I look forward to hearing from “reluctant leaders” and the people who work with them.

Mary