GapAssessment

Before we go about getting better, it pays to know where the gaps exist.

Many wise leaders I know are in a continuous process of gap assessment. Here's how they discern the areas of needed improvement:

• Collect and carefully assess the hard data, making sure that the data they spend their time on is relevant and meaningful.
• Move about the organization, LISTENING carefully to the folks at the front line of each "division" of the work. 
• Engage often and deeply with the "customers" of the organization.
• Reflect often on the Vision of their organization, having conversations with many stakeholders about how/if that Vision will make the world a better place for all. (If it doesn't, it likely needs to be changed.)
• Carefully articulate and codify intended outcomes move the organization toward that Vision, with the actions that generate those outcomes.

Finding the gaps, then doing something about them, is pretty steady work. Paying attention to both the hard data and the soft data is more occult art than exact science. Those wise leaders know, without doubt, that continuous engagement with stakeholders is required.

Almost looks like full days/weeks/months of communications, huh?

  

VoiceGivers

The late Dr. Stephen Covey got quite famous on the strength of his writing of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2004). He followed that book a year later with The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (2005). Both were excellent; I liked the latter even more than the first.

What is that 8th Habit? Finding your voice and helping others find theirs.

Finding our own voice is challenging enough. From a leadership perspective, however, helping others find theirs is extremely difficult. Some of the things that can foster that development of voice in others...

• Creating environments where it's safe to dissent. 
• Inviting others to lend their voice/thinking/perspective to complex problems.
• Articulating clearly the desire, and expectation, for others to speak up/out.
• Being genuinely open to the ideas/perspectives of others.
• Being better Listeners than we are Talkers.
• Saying "And" quite a lot, and saying "But" almost never.  
• Making respectfulness in interactions an organizational non-negotiable.

Helping others find their voice requires of us skill, discipline, and time. 

Who's in?

InfluenceAmp

Musicians and speakers often use amplifiers to "push" their sound/message. The amp takes their normal voice and pushes outward and upward, with a higher volume and clarity. The amp causes their sound/message to gain purchase in further reaches.

The best leaders I know also amplify. They amplify their influence in some rather simple ways:

• They emanate an aura of inclusion rather than exclusion.
• They are persistently transparent and vulnerable.
• They LISTEN a hole right through ya.
• They are genuinely humble.
• A service mindset rules!

We can do that. 

Takes some practice...

MirrorPolishing

The best leaders I know look in the mirror A LOT! These wise leaders continually take a look at themselves, seeking to understand and be self-aware.

What are they looking at/for so intently?

• Weaknesses - They seek to understand their blind spots, their quirks, their foibles, their limitations. They know these things compromise their effectiveness as servant leaders. 

• Strengths - They work persistently to leverage and enhance the areas of strength in their skills set, understanding that the optimization of their strengths most often lifts and empowers all those around them.

A fogged up or dirty mirror, or one that never gets used ................. ain't much good.

Time to polish up and take a good, hard look.

Wanted

Most of us want something we don't currently have. Sometimes it tangible stuff, sometimes intangible. 

Wishing for it, however, usually doesn't fulfill our aspirations. 

Consider a well-used recipe for getting what we want:

• Be crystal clear about what it is we want.
• Make sure that want is righteous, and does not harm others.
• Dedicate the necessary time, effort, and resources required to attain that want.
• Ask for the help of critical others in attaining the want, and be prepared to reciprocate.
• Don't give up if the going gets a little rough in pursuit of the want.

And when we get what we think we want?????

Use it for good, and to make the world a better place.

GO!

CondensedLeadership

Tomes have been written about effective leadership. 

One of my faves is Primal Leadership, written by Daniel Goleman, et al (you can find it under the Book Recommendation tab on this site).

In the book, DG articulates six types of leaders: Visionary, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, Commanding, and Coaching. The best leaders I know flex among and between those six typologies.

Coaching is the one that speaks to me the most. In pretty simple form, it is grounded in a few on-repeat questions:

What are we doing?

How well are those things advancing us toward the Vision we have articulated?

If so, how might we do them better?

If not, how can we take corrective action TODAY?

We can't do it ALL today, but we can do SOMETHING today.

As with all recipes (and the best things in life), it's more art than science.

OfficePrison

If you work in an office, you know full well it can become a prison. We can get locked in that "cell," often with some unsavory characters. Or, at least some unhappy or hair-on-fire ones. 

Not only does that prison confine us, it prevents us from collecting important data. Noted author Peter Senge (of The Fifth Discipline) advises that while the "hard data" are important, the "soft data" are often harder to measure but MORE important to our success as an organization.

When we get out of the office and move about the organization we can collect a plethora of soft data, which can then greatly inform the decisions we make. 

This concept has been described in the business literature as "Management by Walking Around." Whatever we call it, we see/hear/feel a lot of things when we move about the organization that we would never experience if we stay sequestered in the office. 

Soft data, anyone?