TeachingNaked

I recently read Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning by José Antonio Bowen (2012). My Department Chair, Dr. Joyce Farrow, put this one on my radar screen. Thankfully. 

 

My top takeaways:

·       Education has become, and will increasingly be, a highly competitive marketplace. Adaptability and nimbleness will win the day.

·       Design of learning tasks must be framed in a customized and personalized way for the individual learner.

·       We each have a personal epistemology, in that we take what we have learned (knowledge and skills) and frame it against our own contexts (beliefs, motives, aspirations, needs). 

·       Technology is a tool. Like all tools, it can be leveraged to accelerate movement toward desired outcomes -- in our case, LEARNING -- or if wrongly chosen or poorly deployed, it can inhibit the learning.

·       As educators, our product is LEARNING, not the diploma or degree.

·       In educational institutions, the educators/teachers had better be the most passionate and aggressive learners. If not, they will rightly be deemed irrelevant.

 

My favorite quotes:

 

“The problem of teaching, therefore, is not getting the facts but the context from my brain to yours.” (p. 87)

 

“Bain (2004) came to the same conclusion: The best teachers focus on challenging students in a supportive environment where failure is tolerated.” (p. 93)

 

“Today’s employer now expects anyone coming for an interview to have studied the organization’s website carefully.” (p. 151) 

 

“Every profession is becoming more like law and medicine: there is now more information than anyone can memorize and more need for analysis.” (p. 184)  

 

“Record companies fought the demise of the CD because they mistook the delivery system for the product.” (p. 259)

 

Dr. Bowen wrote this book in 2012. I read it 12 years later. He proved to be downright prescient in some of his predictions about where education was/is going. Sadly, we remain mired in some of the same educational paradigms from which he was trying to lead us.

 

Worth the read for those who love education.

Artful_Inquirers

The best leaders I know, in both personal life and professional, are masterful inquirers. At almost every encounter with members of the team, they find a way to ask questions that keep us focused both on the direction we're heading and the way we are spending our precious resources (both tangible and intangible) in pursuit of that direction.

Here are some examples of the questions that Artful Inquirers put before us regularly:

How clear are we about the direction we are heading?

In what ways are we spending our time, effort, resources well in this pursuit?

What expenditures of our time/effort/resources seem not to be moving us toward our vision?

How clear are we, both as teams and as individuals, about the roles we are being asked to play?

How might we be clearer about the vision we have chosen, and why we have chosen it?

These types of questions, and variations on them, serve to cause deep reflection and tightening of alignments. Both are good things.

By the way, these are not posed as hypothetical questions. Thinking and dialogue are required responses.

BlameThrowers

All of us who work in organizations deal with Blame Throwers. 

Blame Throwers are masterful at distancing themselves from responsibility for and ownership of impactful and needed work. They regularly manage, beyond that distancing, to either overtly or covertly turn blame for things that go wrong toward others.

The best leaders I know mitigate BlameThrowing by use of some helpful techniques:

• They clearly and in writing codify who is responsible for what in the organization.
• They meet regularly with Team members, both individually and in groups, to tease out pain points and bottlenecks in organizational work. EVERYONE is offered opportunity to suggest solutions and ideas for improvement, with commensurate responsibility for implementing adopted solutions.
• They discuss all organizational business in the context of the espoused outcomes. Another way of saying they keep conversations "business" and refuse to let it be "personal."
• They quickly, and with dignity, move non-producers off the Team (the producers are very rarely also BlameThrowers).

Transparency is key in keeping the BlameThrowers at bay. They sorta like cockroaches running from light in that respect.

Openness

Openness is a virtue.

Openness implies a willingness to...    

• Treat others respectfully
• Listen, deeply and carefully
• Understand, as clearly as possible
• Seek areas of possible agreement
• Examine and re-examine, on continual loop

Openness does not imply that we can/will agree on every issue or topic, across the spectrum.

Complete and total adherence to the position, thinking, and/or standards of another is more an indication of cultist behavior than it is of openness.

Openness is an immensely challenging intellectual and emotional exercise, for it forces us to critically look inward as we are simultaneously looking outward.

GoodRight

Doing good is harder than not.

Adopting good habits is more difficult than the opposite.

Choosing service over self-interest is an extremely onerous commitment.

Creating ecologically sustainable systems is tougher than consumptive practice.

Insisting on fairness and respectfulness is more challenging than deferring to privilege.

If doing good is such a tough slog, why would we go to the trouble? 

Because doing Good is the Right thing to do.

We are not alone in the journey. Now is an excellent time to push the process.

DisasterFoilers

We make thousands of decisions each day. The higher up the leadership ladder we reside, the number of decisions grows.

Well-crafted policy and ethical judgment are key to making sound and consequential decisions. Those are foundational to efficacious day-to-day operations.  

Crises, however, have a nasty way of shouldering themselves into our workdays. Rarely do those issues rise to the the level of true emergencies; but, sometimes they do.

Two variables that almost always result in either poor or less-than-optimal decisions are Fear and Urgency. When we are making decisions grounded in either of those we are at great risk of making mistakes. 

The best antidote to that "Fear-Urgency disease" is to practice diligently, as a team, the craft of forecasting and anticipating. When the "surprises" don't really surprise us, we are in much better position to make sound and beneficial decisions. Disaster(s) foiled!

Grit

I recently read Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (2018). This book has been the subject of much chatter in recent years.

 

My top takeaways:

·       Showing up………is a large part of the battle. (Dr. Mike Moses taught that it’s at least 90% of the outcome.)

·       Talent x Effort = Skill _ Skill x Effort = Achievement

·       Enthusiasm is quite common. Endurance is the rarity.

·       The genesis of passion is authentically enjoying what you do (or are doing).

·       Purpose ripens passion.

·       Experts don’t just practice, they practice deliberately.

·       Almost any occupation can be a job, or a career, or a calling.

·       Purpose…..is our WHY?

·       A bad day is a terrible time to quit.

·       Grit can be an element of culture.

 

My favorite quotes:

 

“Talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them.” (p. 42)

 

“Grit is about holding the same top-level goal for a very long time.” (p. 64)

 

“One form of perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday.” (p. 91)

 

“For the beginner, novelty is anything that hasn’t been encountered before. For the expert, novelty is nuance.” (p. 114)

 

“Author and activist James Baldwin once put it this way: ‘Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.’” (p. 183)

 

“My husband Jason and I are raising our girls according to the Hard Thing Rule: Do something that requires deliberate practice, don’t quit in the middle of the season or the semester, and pick the hard thing yourself.” (p. 278)

 

 

This book was every bit as good as the chatter it has generated would suggest.

Non-Solvers

Every team seems to have at least one member intent upon being the Non-Solver, the one who identifies problems then sits back to let others try to figure out how to come up with solutions.

Some pretty smart leaders I know don't let folks get away with such slackerishness.

Here are some of the strategies astute leaders use with the Non-Solver types:

• These wise leaders don't let the Non-Solvers operate in secrecy. They force them to offer their complaints, issues, criticisms out in the open. They don't get to "hide" from their observations/judgements. They're forced to "own" them.
• They press the Non-Solvers to present possible solutions to the problems identified. This is usually done in the form of inquiry. Some questions oft used: What have you tried? How well did that work? What did you learn from that effort that will inform our next moves? 
• They prescribe action steps for the Non-Solvers, with deadlines for completion and/or reporting of outcomes.

Continuous Improvement is a powerful element of a healthy organizational culture. 

Continuous Complaint is not.

With-It-Ness

The best leaders I know are With-It kind of people. And not only in the usual sense that they're up to speed and paying attention. 

With-It leaders understand that important work is never done alone. Thus, they continually express an inclusive message of team effort, collaborative endeavor, collective action...........WITH-IT-ness.

Some important messages those With-It leaders send:

• "We" are always smarter than "I"
• Team effort is a force multiplier
• Each of us has a gift/talent to contribute, and is expected to do so
• All voices should be heard
• There are no bench-sitters, everyone is in the game
• Information is shared freely (there are no secrets)
• Connecting, collaborating, communicating WITH each other is a requirement

Winning is the result of WITH-IT kinds of teams. And leaders.

ManipuFluence

Causing others to think and act is a fundamental responsibility of leadership.

Some choose to engage in those causative acts through manipulation, others through influence.

Consider this continuum (with sum corollary descriptors):

Manipulation <<<<< ----- >>>>> Influence

Reductionist <<<<< ------------------ >>>>> Holistic

Fixed Mindset <<<<< ----- >>>>> Growth Mindset

Secretive <<<<< ------------- >>>>> Full Disclosure

Exclusive <<<<< --------------------- >>>>> Inclusive

Egotism <<<<< ----------------- >>>>> Stewardship

The motive of the agent is at play along every level. As is the anticipated number of "winners" and "losers."

You can probably guess when end of that continuum I prefer.

ServantStewardship

Much has been written about the concept of Servant Leadership. Whole books. Many whole books, in fact.

Some of the most emulatable Servant Leaders I know demonstrate some very powerful common attributes:

• We Language - Their language is always inclusive and invitational. They rarely speak in terms of "I" or "They," and almost always pepper conversations with "We" and "Our."

• Seek Deeper Understanding - They seem perpetually in search of deeper understanding......of people, of contexts, of data, of conditions. That seeking is relentlessly grounded in the use of Good Questions + Powerful Listening.

• Relational - Those impactful leaders strive mightily to build bridges, not walls. They understand that Relationships are the fuel upon which positive outcomes run. They attend to those relationships with great care.

Service and Stewardship are both powerful conceptual models. Imagine the impact of leaders who combine giving with caretaking.

Time to practice....

SharePower

Tremendous potential and possibility is unleashed when sharing occurs. 

Great things happen when a team or community decides to freely SHARE...    

• A noble and worthy Purpose
• Values and beliefs
• Talents and strengths
• Tangible and intangible resources
• Commitment 
• Love

Each of those elements are variables that are dynamic and malleable. They constantly change and mush and morph. 

Some folks describe such sharing within and across a system as CULTURE. 

Leaders are wise to pay attention to, and shape, the sharing.

King: A Life

 I recently read King: A Life by Jonathon Eig (2023). It is the most recent biography of Martin Luther King. 

 My top takeaways:

·       I was regularly struck by how young MLK was during his window of real-time influence.

·       Clearly, Providence predestined MLK into the role he played (as brief as his time on earth was).

·       As are all our heroes, MLK was human; he had the accompanying faults, flaws, and demons, despite being a man of the cloth.

·       I was not aware of what a pillar of strength Coretta, his wife, was; a remarkable woman. 

·       Interesting to me was the constant push-pull of MLK’s advisors and “influencers,” who continually sought to morph his message. It was clearly a challenge for him to stay focused on the primary outcome he pursued: just and equitable application of the principles promised in our Constitution. 

·       It seems abundantly clear to me that MLK believed to his core that LOVE is the only thing that can defeat hate/evil. 

 

My favorite quotes:

He called himself “a victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hope.” He also insisted that “we must never lose infinite hope.” He never did. (p. 10)

 

He called out in his deep, throbbing voice, and the people responded, the noise of the crowd rolling and pounding in waves that shook the building as he built to a climax: And we are not wrong… If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie. Love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. (p. 171)

 

The means we use must be as pure as the end we seek. (p. 403)

 

“God’s unbroken hold on us,” he said, “is something that will never permit us to feel right when we do wrong, or to feel natural when we do the unnatural. God has planted within us certain eternal principles, and the more we try to get away from them the more frustrated we will be.” (p. 566)

 

This work pushed my thinking deeply on two fronts: spiritual and political. It brought clarity to both perspectives. A good work.

SoWhatSuccess

What will it matter?

Most individuals and organizations long to be successful, to prosper. 

In particular, organizations go to great lengths to enhance their chances of success. They engage in market studies, strategic planning, infrastructure embellishments, targeted recruiting, investment in development processes, etc., etc. 

Some folks partake in similar success-oriented efforts at the individual level.

At the end of the day, we are wise to ask the following question: What will it matter if we're successful?

Will we be better people? Or organizations? Will the lives of others have been enhanced or improved? Will the world be a better place as result of our success? Does/Will our success have any eternal significance?

Purpose matters. Perhaps it's the only thing that matters.

(r)Evolution

Evolution implies change. Almost always that change culminates in a more complex state.

Evolution happens to us individually, physically, cognitively, and spiritually.  (Take a look at pictures of yourself over time if you need proof.) Evolution also occurs in social systems and organizations.

Change truly IS the constant.

Revolution is typically promulgated by those who are not satisfied with either the direction of the change(s) or the speed at which those changes are occurring. Revolution is almost always disruptive in nature. Revolutionaries push/force us to choose, rather than just drift.

An important distinction is worth noting: Sometimes, revolutionaries push for better systems, processes, and outcomes for ALL. Other kinds of revolutionaries seem "in it" only for themselves and their kin.

CHANGE is coming, inevitably. Because of our technological connectivity, time and place are continually diminishing in relevance as we observe and participate in the r/evolution.

How about we choose betterness for ALL (since the change is happening, anyway).

AssumpXploration

Being stuck is a common experience. We get stuck as individuals, and we get stuck as organizations.

Getting unstuck is tricky business because it requires...

• Careful examination of how we got stuck in the first place (aka Reflection)
• Honest assessment of any assumptions that might have landed us in stuckedness
• Willingness to clarify direction and next steps out of stuckedness
• Forecasting opportunities and challenges to those next steps

Who has time for all that!?! 

Many choose the perceived less painful path of simply remaining stuck. Others, however, choose the journey toward improvement and betterness.

Key to this process is the part about honestly assessing assumptions. Carefully exploring what assumptions got us in this mess -- or are keeping us in this state of stuckedness -- are critical in finding our way out of it. 

Assumpxploration is key to getting unstuck.

BetterBitter

Some folks I know work intentionally, daily, relentlessly to get BETTER. Almost everyone I know that fits that description does so through a disciplined, continual LEARNING journey. They seem dedicated to making themselves better, in the interest of making our world better.

I know a few folks who seem equally dedicated to being BITTER. You likely know them, too, so I won't go into details of what that looks/feels/sounds like. 

I've noticed that BETTER attracts BETTER. Likewise, BITTER seems to attract BITTER.

Today, I think I'll choose BETTER. (Come on in, the water's fine.........BETTER, actually.)

ProgressionAilments

Most organizations exist to accomplish something important. Most people who work in organizations want their organization to succeed (even if it's for purely selfish purposes).

Two debilitating ailments commonly compromise organizational progress: Complacency and Inertia.

Complacency is the product of being satisfied with the current state. Organizations that fall "ill" in this regard lose (or never had) a focus on continuous improvement. We -- the leaders -- can do something about that.

Inertia frequently results when fear of change sets in. When doing nothing seems safer than doing something, we move into an organizational death spiral. We -- the leaders -- can do something about that.

While there are a lot of moving parts to the something(s) that we -- the leaders -- can do, the first and foremost is to communicate with absolute clarity the noble and worthy outcomes we seek as a team. 

FIX(h)ATED

The wisest leaders I know resist the temptation to "fix" other folks. They understand each of us has predispositions and natural skills, the domains in which we work most comfortably.

Those wise leaders seek and find ways to put us in roles that are a good match for our "talents," and they work just as mightily to NOT give us responsibilities for which we are destined to fail due to that misalignment.

Our individual success, 

     the success of our organization, and thus, 

          the success of the leadership 

is optimized by effective skills-matching in that regard.

Those wise leaders also expect -- demand -- that each of us continually learn, improve, grow, get better. Complacency is not a skill, but rather, it's a condition wise leaders do not abide (for all the right reasons).

Obitu-Leader

Volumes have been written about what does and doesn't make a good leader. To be sure, there are many moving parts to being an effective leader. And, constantly changing contexts do nothing but make the challenges more ominous.

Nothing inhibits our ability to lead effectively more than when we begin to let "getting stuff done" become more important than learning. 

When we stop growing -- stop LEARNING -- we have begun writing our own leadership obituaries.

Yeppers; it's a choice we make. Daily.

Doom-ification

As leaders, we can create the conditions of our own demise. 

Here are some of the pitfalls to avoid if we intend to truly make a difference:

• Become Disconnected - Losing focus on the most important things the we are trying to achieve.
• Stay in the Spotlight - Letting "it" become about us, rather than about what we are trying to achieve.
• Remain Mushy - Allowing meetings and work processes to become bogged down in the meaningless and minutae.
• Talk Too Much, Listen Too Little - Being enamored with our own voices (and thoughts).
• Fail to Notice - Disregarding and devaluing those doing the necessary work, up and down the food chain.

It's a doom loop that guarantees failure and stagnation if we choose to engage in those practices.

Reminded of a mantra from my former life as an athletic coach: "We'd better be in the business of getting better everyday; our competitors most certainly are."

ExcellenceTough

Individual excellence is tough. 

It requires skill + intense work + highly focused effort + ongoing learning + commitment to continuous improvement + getting up one more time than we get knocked down. 

Organizational excellence is even tougher. 

It requires skill + intense work + highly focused effort + ongoing learning + commitment to continuous improvement + getting up one more time than we get knocked down + constant CULTURE crafting.

Constant CULTURE crafting is a fundamental responsibility of leaders. Perhaps the toughest part of our very tough work.

What fabulous outcomes occur when we manage to get it right!

HopeGenesis

HOPE is not a strategy. Hope is only the genesis of strategy development. Hope is the mindset that can ignite within us purpose and action.

The best leaders I know use HOPE as the starting point to pull folks into meaningful conversations about...

1) Vision - clarity about that better future we envision

2) Mission - the actions required of us to make that Vision reality

Both Vision and Mission require investment, commitment, and work.

When we stop at HOPE, we're doing nothing but dreaming. When those in leadership stop at HOPE, they're doing nothing but pandering. 

CultureIzation

According to leadership guru Dan Rockwell, culture is the embodiment of Beliefs + Behaviors.

Culture has no traction without both. Culture without traction is .... not really culture.

As leaders of families and organizations, our work is to continually communicate what our Beliefs are, and to model aligned (and replicable) Behaviors.

We are the embodiments of the Ways of Thinking, Ways of Behaving, and Ways of Symbolizing that are the manifestations of our culture. Or, should be. 

Leaders are the most visible models in this process. INTEGRITY is when our words and actions are aligned. Time to scoot... 

CommunicationCancers

I once read that the surest thing about communication is that all attempts at it fail. Seems spot on.

Effective communication is hard enough when our intentions are noble. When attempts at communication are purposefully (or negligently) undermined, it verges on being downright sinful.

Here are some common and surefire ways to toxify communications:

• Mushify the language to the point that the ambiguity guarantees multiple meanings/understandings will result.
• Persistently speaking on behalf of others (and allowing it to continue unchallenged).
• Assuming silence to be affirmation or agreement. It isn't.
• Avoid addressing difficult topics, or dance around them.
• Attacking the person rather than the position they are taking. The classic art of diversion.

Meetings are regularly highjacked by such behaviors and tactics. The chair of the meeting can do much to interdict these toxicities. Group norms that prohibit them are even better.

But..................that's only if we want to be productive and impactful in our work.

OnPrinciple

It is immensely comforting to work for/with people (especially leaders) who operate On Principle.

They speak, move, act, react, make decisions that are grounded solidly on principles of rightness, fairness, trust, and honesty. Minute-by-minute, day in and day out.

Such folks (especially leaders) give the rest of us room to work, to speak, to move, to act, to react, and to make decisions with a high level of confidence (and safety).

Knowing they will consistently stand solidly on noble Principles gives us the safety to do the same.

Deflators

Leaders in organizations have tremendous impact on others. How we operate and behave has everything to do with how our team(s) perform.

Here are some common habits that consistently cause a team to deflate:

• Meetings Malfeasance - show up late, start late, arrive unprepared, allow un-agendaed items/discussions

• Emotional Potluck - responses toward others are unpredictable, emotional, thoughtless, reactive

• Vacuous Vagrancy- appear disinterested, too busy, disengaged, uncaring, perpetually distracted

Each of the deflating elements above are grounded solidly in a ME-first rather than WE-first mentality. It's treatable, and curable. But Deflationary Leader Syndrome must first be self-diagnosed and then aggressively addressed with very intentional intervention.

Who?

Who?

Who do I know that needs to hear from me today?

Who needs my ear and mind today?

Who will enter my sphere of influence today, and why, and am I prepared to engage?

Who do I need to meet today?

Who do I need to seek out for advice and counsel today?

WHO needs me today? WHO do I need today?

More importantly, will I be "present" enough to notice?

SlowMo

One of the first exemplary leaders (aka JB) I worked for taught me the immense value of slowness.

JB exuded an aura of stoicism, unflappability, studiousness. I now better understand WHAT he was doing, and WHY. JB understood, and was teaching me, that those of us who lead others are wise to move slowly as often as possible (true emergencies where lives are in danger being the exception).

Here are some of the instructive ways JB moved slowly:

• He was slow to "fix," or try to solve the problems of, others.
• He was slow to start talking, preferring to question and deeply listen first.
• He was slow to accept the assertions/allegation/reports of the first (or only) "reporter."
• He was slow to jump to conclusions and make impactful decisions without researching thoroughly and seeking insight from wise others.
• We was slow to adopt novelty in whole cloth fashion, preferring to treat "new ways of doing it" as pilot projects that could be tweaked as they were being explored and adapted.
• He was slow in physically moving about, recognizing that when the leader appears "on fire" it has a disruptive and unsettling effect on others in the organization.

Thankful to this day for both the direct and indirect guidance I received from JB. Thankful, too, that I had him to learn from early in my career/life. 

I'd bet good money that JB is today one of the slowest movers in heaven.

MediocrityRules!

Yes, mediocrity rules! Almost always. It's the norm.

A precious few decide that mediocrity is not enough. For themselves, and for their organizations, they choose a life of excellence.

Here are some of the common attributes of mediocrity:

• Don't care.
• Lack of focus.
• Don't try.
• No clarity of purpose.
• Don't grow/learn.
• Dodge responsibility and accountability.
• Waste >> time, effort, resources, relationships.

Flipping that script would be a pretty good move toward excellence (and away from mediocrity).

AuthenticSelf

"The real deal." --- "What you see is what you get." ---  "Bank on it." ---  "She/He will 'hold the rope'."

We all have some conception of what authenticity looks like. Most of us likely aspire to be our authentic selves. And, for most of us, it is likely a "work" in which we are constantly involved.

When I look in the mirror to assess my own authenticity, here are some questions I ask myself:

How pure are my motives/intentions as I go about my daily life and work?

What are the 3-5 BIG picture drivers of my life and work?

How much of my time, effort, and resources am I dedicating to pursuit of those drivers?

How likely would others be able to discern those drivers (without me having to articulate them)?

Looks like I still have work to do.

PowerProjectors

The most impactful leaders and influential mentors I know are skillful in the art of projecting power. 

Not power OVER, but power TO. They effectively cause others in their sphere of influence to feel more powerful. 

Some strategic moves those impactful influencers make are:

• Seek - They persistently seek input, feedback, advise, and counsel.
• Include - They include others, in the discussions, in processes, in decisions.
• Listen - They ask good questions and listen "deeply" to the answers.
• Care - They show care, at multiple levels, in many ways.
• Empower - They give authority, monitor the work, follow-up regularly.
• Praise - They express gratitude profusely, both publicly and privately.

With power comes responsibility. That is the constant drumbeat underneath that projection of power.

Notice please, that not one of those strategies requires a line in the budget.

Amplifiers

I am a pseudo-musician. Occasionally I use an amplifier during a musical performance. While I am not classically trained, nor is my voice superbly polished, the amplifier makes me sound better than I really am. 

What does that amplifier do? 

• It allows me to project my music without as much stress and effort.
• It pushes my music further, extending its reach.
• It brings clarity to the subtleties and nuance of my music.
• It gives my music far greater "signal" strength.

The best leaders I know play a similar role in their organizations. They are excellent amplifiers. They clean, clarify, and push the best efforts of others. 

Ready-gation

Impactful work is always complex. It's always difficult. And it's always too much!

When we choose to do impactful work, we absolutely must do it as a team. What happens far too often is that the leader sees where the work and workflow should be going, but some (or all) of the team does not.

Aligning the team to the work needs is a fundamental responsibility of leadership. It is essential to executing the work and achieving the aspired outcomes. 

Some particularly successful leaders in this regard practice the following. They...

• Relentlessly remind the team of where we're going and why.
• Match team members with work that aligns to their skills set.
• Establish clear and written assigned roles for the team members.
• Schedule regular and brief team-wide "check-up" meetings.
• Meet with each team member much more frequently, around the specifics and depth of their assigned role.

The best leaders I know praise and express gratitude a LOT publicly. They redirect/criticize individually and privately. 

I've worked for a few leaders like that. (A few too few.)

47

My pentecostal grandmother convinced me at the age of 10 to pray daily for my future life-mate, even though I had absolutely no idea who that person might be. I did (and still do).

That Girl entered my life several years later, and immediately changed it for the better. She still does. 

The hang has been easy for 47 years.................and still counting.

Tracy Byrd captures is HERE.

Graticism

Over the years I've often heard leaders posit the strategy of pairing criticism (usually of employee performance) with doses of gratitude/praise. I think of it as "graticism."

The best, and usually the smartest, team members I've worked with recognize this psycho-manipulation for what it is: an attempt to "soften" criticism with praise. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, as the old mantra goes. 

I am neither a fan, nor practitioner.

Two considerations that spring from my hard experiences on this front:

1. Uninvited criticism is rarely, if ever, received well (I believe the research in psychology supports my position in this regard). Rather, surfacing poor performance issues through conversation and inquiry has always provided for me better results in conducting these difficult conversations. Trust is the starting point of solution crafting in this area. Making folks feel they're being psycho-manipulated is not a very good trust building technique. 

2. Saying THANKS and offering praise for good effort (and work) in stand-alone formatting is a marvelous and high yield strategy. The cost is low; the dividends are high. In fact, it's often the antecedent to that trust building thing... (and it makes both giver and receiver feel a little better).

(And, yes, I know I'm not in the main stream of thought on this subject. I'm fine with that....)

TruthLeaning

Obfuscation, ambiguity, misdirection, and outright bamboozlement. We see tactics of this sort steadily employed from leaders in all kinds of organizations.

And then....

Other leaders take the position that TRUTH is the starting point of TRUST creation.

Wise leaders of this ilk practice a simple set of strategies:

• They package and report organizational news (both good and bad) in plain language.
• They remind us of the WHY of our organizational efforts.
• They challenge us to own the bad news, and to collectively correct the problems that cause(d) it.
• They celebrate the good news and praise those (both publicly and privately) who had a hand in generating it.
• They remind us again of the WHY that underlies our work together.

The best servant leaders invest daily in building TRUST. They know that the foundation of that covenant is telling the TRUTH. They lean into it daily. 

ListenLeverage

Attention spans seem shorter than ever. Droning on is one of the surest ways to lose our audience(s). 

The best communicators I know engage some very intentional strategies when they have opportunity to speak. They leverage:

• Connections -- Folks listen best when we are discussing something important to them.
• Future Focus -- Speak to a better future we can craft together.
• Specificity -- Ambiguity and mush are.............ambiguity and mush.
• Inquiry -- Let powerful questions drive the conversations toward solutions.
• Brevity -- Less is more, especially when garnering attention/interest is our goal.
• Inclusivity -- WE is always a more powerful attractor than me.

When we successfully engage the thinking of others, we rattle around in their brains long after we have relinquished the microphone and the room has emptied. 

ContinuousBetterment

Most people think of their job as continuous work. Folks who are committed to excellence, however, think of their work as continuous improvement.

ONLY when our work is that of service -- making the world a better place -- does that continuous march toward excellence yield the best versions of ourselves. Continuous improvement, constant betterment, and the pursuit of excellence can be undertaken regardless of job title.

Getting better. Every day. On purpose. 

Yes, we can. And LEARNING is the vehicle that gets us there.

InquiringMentors

Most of us have mentors. Most of us have many mentors. Most of us also serve as mentors.

The magic of mentoring is asking the right questions, the ones that cause the mentee to think.....

             What am I doing? 

                  Why was/am I doing that? 

                       How can I do (it) better? 

                            What do I need to learn next? 

Master mentors are maestros of inquiry.

Mentors who don't ask powerful questions.......................should just send a memo. (Which no one will read.)

Poor-formers

Every organization has poor performers on the team. What are leaders to do with those poor performers?

 
Our options are few:

• GROW 'em -- We can choose to build their capacity toward achieving the outcomes we need from them.

• MOVE 'em -- We can admit that we are asking them to do a job for which their skills are not well suited. Moving that team member into a role for which they can be more successful may be the best option.

• ACCEPT 'em -- We can choose to live with their shortcomings, if and only if their contributions in other dimensions adequately offset those deficiencies.

• REMOVE 'em -- Separation is the most painful option. IF the poor-former is willing and able to get better, at an acceptable speed, choose one of the other three options. If not, respectfully remove them as quickly as possible.

Deciding which of those paths to take is more occult art than exact science. Making that decision requires that we know the poor-former well enough to have some understanding of the genesis of the problem. Sometimes, life circumstances cause windows of poor performance, for which we are wise to exercise a measure of grace.

Always, these decisions have rippling implications for the health and wellbeing of the whole team. The Team is watching. ALWAYS!

Stuckedness

Ever work in an organization that felt like it was "stuck?"

Some of the best leaders I know interdict this state of stuckedness by engaging in the following strategic moves:

• Make perfectly clear to all stakeholders -- internal and external -- WHY the organization exists and what it's noble pursuits are.
• Clearly define the roles of those in the organization. Everyone knows how they can, and are expected to, contribute.
• Listen daily to team members up and down the food chain, to get their take on how those pursuits are going.
• Model and insist upon continuous growth and improvement from everyone in the organization, beginning with the head honchos. 

Unstuck is a way better state than stuckedness. The leader moves described above make the folks who revel in stuckedness extremely uncomfortable. By design.

Time to shift into four wheel drive... 

HELPitual

Feeling the pull toward a life of service to others is quite common. Committing to a life of service to others is a whole nuther ballgame.

The most effective servant leaders I know quite deliberately engage in the following:

• They serve WAY more than they talk about serving.
• They view NOW as the best time to serve others. 
• They actively pursue ways to be of service.
• They serve in both small ways and large.
• They seek not praise for their service.

HELPing is what those servant leaders do...................as matter of intentional habit.

Applications are not necessary. Anyone can play. Now is the best time to start.

Transmission

Most of us have a license to drive vehicles. Virtually ALL vehicles have a transmission.

What is a transmission (in simple terms)? It's the part of the vehicle that takes the power generated from the engine and transfers that power to the wheels. Only then does movement take place.

The best leaders I know serve as the "transmissions" of their organization: They take the power of the Vision and transmit it to the folks who can move that Vision toward reality.

Power on!

FaithfulnessBoundaries

We all engage in living our lives according to a set of goals. Those goals may have to do with relationships, or professional achievements, or financial aspirations, or ??? There are a bazillion possibilities.

Our level of faithfulness to those goals is directly proportional to the amount of time, effort, and attention we dedicate to them.

As well, opportunities to deviate abound. We are steadily offered opportunity to "compromise," to "cut corners," to "make exceptions" to the outcomes we have chosen.

That's where our faithfulness comes into play. Knowing the lines we will not cross, understanding the compromises we are unwilling to make, considering carefully the "not gonna" calculus is an immensely helpful exercise for us. 

A simple and liberating recipe:

• Consider carefully the NOBLE and WORTHY goals to which we'll be dedicating ourselves.
• Clearly articulate those goals for ourselves and others. 
• Make clear the compromising boundaries we will never cross in pursuing those goals.

These are important considerations for each of us as individuals. They are incalculably more important for those of us who lead organizations -- families, houses of faith, businesses, schools,.... 

Those who trust us must always be confident that "our anchor will hold."

LeaderShift

The best leaders I know pull a "switch" on the usual and customary conceptions of how leaders normally approach their work. They shift their behavior in some interesting "contradictory" ways:

• They seek to serve more than to be served.
• They purposefully listen more than they talk.
• They consistently turn the spotlight toward others.
• They ALWAYS exhibit kindness and respectfulness. 
• They genuinely care, and take the time to express it. 
• They stay focused on the long-term goals as opposed to short-term gains. 

All the above are learnable skills. 

Think I'll take another look in the mirror.....

ExpertFog

It is difficult to read an article these days that does not quote an "expert" or state something along the lines of "experts say." 

Experts have never been in short supply, and they have always disagreed. Always will. As one of my favorite mentors says, "Everyone has an opinion; I prefer the informed ones." 

Worth remembering is that we, and our team, are the experts within our unique contexts. To position our team to make the best possible decisions in a world/fog of confusing and conflicting data, and myriad mitigating variables, consider the following:

• Add the smartest people we can find to be on our team.
• Give everyone at the table voice in the conversations around the complex problems, and expect them to use those voices (banish quickly the "hiders" and "dodgers").
• Refuse to do nothing. Inertia and complacency are diseases to be eradicated.
• Demand, embed, and incentivize betterment measures, every day.
• Insist that continual LEARNING is an expected daily discipline. 

If it were easy, anyone could do it. Maybe even the "experts."